Eight years after a presidential commission called the District’s plans somewhat “uninspired,” city and federal officials Tuesday cut the ribbon on a soaring new Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge that they said shows what can be built when federal Washington and local officials team up on infrastructure.

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       D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and others waved District flags as they marched across the new bridge, backed by members of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts marching band. The bridge was then blessed, and the freedom fighter it was named for was recalled as an inspiration.

       Standing on the bridge deck about a mile south of the U.S. Capitol — where a $1 trillion infrastructure bill is pending following Senate passage last month — officials made the case that progress is difficult, but possible. The project carried a price tag of about $480 million.

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       “I think of it as a workhorse bridge. It holds our city together, and it is a gateway to the D.C. economy,” said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.). “This is not only regarded as the most important bridge in the nation’s capital. I’m here to tell you it was the most costly … I had to squirrel funds, year-by-year, more than 10 years, to accumulate the funding.”

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       Bowser said federal support was crucial, as was local action over many years, including by officials who preceded her. She praised the D.C. workers who built a structure that ties both sides of the river together.

       “Steny and Eleanor, we really can’t thank you enough for making sure we got the funds we needed to get this bridge done,” Bowser said. “The ultimate tribute to Douglass in Washington will be the name of our state, the 51st state, and Douglass Commonwealth.”

       Under a D.C. statehood bill in Congress, the federal district — the seat of government — would shrink to a two-mile enclave, including key federal buildings and monuments. The rest of the city would become the state of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth.

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       On Tuesday, Hoyer said the Maryland-born Douglass, who began life enslaved and became a powerful abolitionist, “would say we’ve come a long way,” but there is still far to travel. He said early designs of the bridge were redrawn into the stunning structure set to open at the end of the week. Douglass moved to Washington in 1872.

       “I think what has been built here is a work of beauty,” Hoyer said.

       The 1,445-foot-long structure is replacing a crumbling 1950s-era span to become the city’s largest infrastructure project in history, viewed as a large step toward transforming the shores of the Anacostia River and connecting communities on both sides.

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       The new bridge will open to vehicles between Friday and Sunday, transportation officials said. Tuesday’s ceremony followed a 5K run and pedestrian preview of the bridge Monday.

       The new bridge’s construction started in summer 2017 and followed more than a decade of planning to address deterioration on the old bridge. The older span is still safe for travel, but was falling apart faster than repairs could be made, engineers say.