Frances Bidwell, of Providence, and her husband, Richard Bidwell, stroll across the newly opened India Point Park Bridge yesterday. The 48-foot-wide bridge will receive $1.7 million worth of greenery next spring.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

PROVIDENCE — Standing on the newly opened India Point Park pedestrian bridge and facing due west, the future of the city becomes clear.

It is here –– over one of the busiest stretches of highway in the state –– that the biggest public works projects in the city are readily visible: the light green arches of the Providence River Bridge, the new stretches of Route 195, and the as-yet-unclaimed downtown land below the old highway lanes.

“Visualize the change for the city and the state of Rhode Island,” said Michael Lewis, state Department of Transportation director at a ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday at the foot of the bridge. Under the old highway is “an enormous amount of real estate. This is the promise of this project.”

The pedestrian bridge, one year delayed in its completion, connects the East Side neighborhood of Fox Point with India Point Park, a strip of park-land at the head of Narragansett Bay.

With the words “India Point Park Bridge” in bold green lettering on the new span over Route 195, it is a dramatic change from the narrow, chainlink fence-enclosed span that was torn down three years ago.

Completed by the Cardi Corp., the bridge is a 48-feet wide, park-like concourse, complete with concrete benches along its span and columned lamp posts. It accounts for $9.5 million of the state DOT’s Iway project, which carries a total price tag of $610 million.

“The bridge opens up the neighborhood in a big way,” said Terrence Cannon, a former Fox Pointer who teaches tai chi classes every Monday at the park. “India Point is in the middle of the city but it’s also one of its quietest spots.”

The bridge’s completion also brings to focus a number of other nearby projects in development that are crucial to the city’s future.

India Street, a local access road along the Fox Point waterfront that connects South Water Street to Gano Street and provides an entry point for the I-195 East ramp on South Main Street, opened for traffic yesterday along with the bridge.

Just beyond the park lies Shooters, a now-derelict nightclub that the state plans to sell to the highest bidder to offset costs of the Iway project, according to state DOT spokeswoman Heidi Cote.

There are also two parks to be constructed closer to downtown by about 2012. They are to be built on six acres of land on the west side of the Providence River and on two acres on the east side with a proposed pedestrian bridge connecting them.

The southbound lanes of I-95 that connect to the eastbound lanes of Route 195 –– the next major new stretch of the Iway — are set to open by the end of the year, according to the state DOT.

When Route 195 was built during President Eisenhower’s administration, the highway bisected the downtown, separating neighborhoods and dividing the city, according to Mayor David N. Cicilline.

But the bridge’s completion reconnected India Point, “one of the most important spaces in the city,” with Fox Point, “one of its most vibrant neighborhoods,” he said.

Heather Florence, a member of Friends of India Point Park, hoped that the bridge encouraged more people to enjoy the park and the Fox Point neighborhood, which is home to a lively row of restaurants and small businesses along Wickenden Street.

The park is poised to become the state’s “hub of biking,” she noted, as it will be the point where bike paths from the downtown and from the East Bay meet, as they once did before the Washington Bridge was closed to pedestrians.

Yesterday’s crowd, which included elderly residents from the nearby high rises, as well as students from Vartan Gregorian Elementary School, walked down the brick stairway and the wheelchair-accessible ramps leading to the park.

They lingered along the overpass, where waist-high planting beds were still empty. Frank Corrao, deputy chief engineer for the state DOT, said that the next phase of the project is adding $1.7 million worth of greenery to the bridge. The plan is to plant a “densely packed” array of trees and shrubs, creating a garden-like setting over the highway, he said.

But before that, the neighborhood is planning a parade and party in the park to celebrate the bridge’s completion, scheduled for Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m.

pmarcelo@projo.com