The opening of Potomac Yard in Alexandria was nearly three decades in the making and Friday morning the vision turned real. The trains are finally here. 

Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson couldn’t wait to ride. He felt a mix of excitement and relief as he boarded the first train at 5:08 a.m.

“And the funniest thing is, you had a whole crowd of people who were there mostly just to ride the first train, and then a woman showed up with a suitcase just catching a plane,” Wilson said. 

The new station, useful from the very beginning. 

By 10:30 a.m., more than 1,300 people had passed through the faregates. Yellow Line trains arrive every 8 minutes during the day, and Blue Line trains arrive every 12 minutes during rush hour.

Wilson said it’s hard to not be emotional on a day like this.

“So many hours of meetings, planning, so many moments where we didn’t know if it was going to quite happen or it could all fall apart,” he said. “So it makes this all the more sweet. This is really exciting.”

It was a scene of eager anticipation in the Potomac Yard neighborhood as nearby office workers stopped by to check out the station and get commemorative pennants and Potomac Yard SmarTrip cards. 

Hardcore rail fans checked out the station and all the activity around it: VRE, Amtrak, and freight trains. Airplanes taking off from DCA, and the bustle of pedestrians on the bridges into the station. Screens coming up the escalator from the platform announced bus arrival times outside.

The station is among the most expensive WMATA has built, $370 million, due to its complicated location: in a wetland and former brownfield site, next to active train tracks, and within view of the historic George Washington Parkway, which required certain design elements.

People marveled at the art and the station’s unique features, including the soaring headhouse, the glass skylights above the tracks, and the natural stone and brown steel, which were included to fit the surrounding area.

“It’s distinctive,” Metro board chair and former Alexandria councilmember Paul Smedberg said. “For the neighborhood to be able to have a statement piece and to attract businesses and residents… it symbolizes what the neighborhood can be.”

Oakley Winters, a rider who has been to several station openings, loves the new station. 

“The design is really cool,” he said. “I think they did well with building an infill station… It’s a little bit more challenging than doing a new build like the Silver Line Phase II projects. 

“The station is light, it’s airy. I love the brickwork they’ve done around the entrances. And I think it really kind of does well to both have a bigger station for the community, but also kind of reflect the natural landscape.”

And of course, there were speeches.

Sen. Mark Warner remembers being on the Commonwealth Transportation Board in 1991 when the station was first talked about after the old rail yard was demolished. He was governor when it was promised Potomac Yard was “opening soon.”

“Twenty-two years later…,” he trailed off. “I want to use that line, “It takes a village,” but trust me, it takes a city to get this done.”

“It’s a great day for Alexandria. A great day for Northern Virginia. A great day for the Commonwealth. And a great day for the DMV.”

Congressman Don Beyer said his wife didn’t believe he was going to the opening of the station.

“This station is living proof of the value of hope and persistence and relentlessness and courage and grit,” he said. “And the importance of elections. Elections really do matter.”

The land that Potomac Yard sits on was a railyard from 1906 to 1982. When it shut down, it was a brownfield site, but officials say the potential for a new Metro station. It took decades to get to the planning stages in the late 2000s. It took a few years of delay as track work, sensors, and soil issues delayed the opening until today.

It has been a time of tremendous growth for Metro, as it has opened seven new stations in the last six months – six new stations along the Silver Line last November and now a new infill station. WMATA last opened five Silver Line stations in 2014, then the last one prior to that was in 2004 along the Blue Line. Metro has no concrete plans for new stations next, though a study that could create new lines will be examined by the Metro board later this year. 

Sen. Tim Kaine said you have to savor these moments when they come.

“Metro is critical to Virginia. Northern Virginia wouldn’t work without Metro. And opening new stations is a sign of growth and expansion,” Kaine said. “Potomac Yard has just turned into such a magnificent asset for Arlington and Alexandria and this is going to serve not only those communities but communities more broadly.”

Potomac Yard is WMATA’s second built to fill in service gaps between previously existing stations. NoMa-Gallaudet is the system’s only other infill station.

“Wherever Metro goes, community grows,” WMATA General Manager Randy Clarke told the 600 in attendance. “And this is going to be another great example of that.”

But the neighborhood is clearly still under development. A new Virginia Tech Innovation Campus is coming next year. (The Hokie bird mascot and VT President Tim Sand helped cut the ribbon). Mixed-use retail and apartment buildings are sprouting up directly by the station. For now, dirt and construction vehicles are the main sights to see. 

The retail that is here, JBG Smith’s Potomac Yard Center anchored by Target, Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, and more, is oriented toward Richmond Highway. It’s a short 5-10 minute walk from the station, but you have to walk on sidewalks facing the backside of the loading docks. 

Officials say it will take years if not decades for the area to fill out, but when it does, they expect 13,000 new residents and 26,000 new jobs just a 15-minute ride to downtown D.C.

But while the day was pegged celebrating the new shiny station in town, many returned back to the decades-long path to get here, and the decades-long legacy the station will leave.

“The countless Alexandrians who believed in this project when almost nobody else did… This is your legacy. This is your station,” Wilson said. “This station is going to change lives forever and we made it happen together. 

“Congratulations, everyone. Well done!”