SF’s newest park has some retro charm in the form of benches and beams from the disassembled old eastern span of the Bay Bridge, as the $32 million Bayfront Park just opened Tuesday right next to the Chase Center.

You’ll recall that the old eastern span of the Bay Bridge was torn down starting in 2014, after that fancy new eastern span opened in 2013. So, what did they do with the disassembled pieces of the old Bay Bridge? Well, some of them are now part of the new Bayfront Park that just opened Tuesday, according to the Chronicle. The park makes benches and sculptures out of the rusty old steel beams, adding a fun, rugged charm to the new 5.5-acre park to a waterfront area immediately outside the Chase Center that was formerly a loading dock for Bethlehem Steel.

The Chronicle notes that the park’s designer, Surfacedesign Inc., was able to go out on the water while the old bridge was being torn down, and pick out their chosen planks of steel and old parts. “It was crazy being on the bridge picking steel out,” Surfacedesign partner James Lord told the Chronicle. “We handpicked it from the trusses.”

Bayfront Park just had its ribbon-cutting and grand opening Tuesday morning. “With the opening of Bayfront Park, we have reached another exciting milestone in our efforts to create a Mission Bay that is a thriving neighborhood with great open spaces, new housing developments, as well as world renowned health centers and sports institutions,” Mayor London Breed said in a statement issued before the ceremony. “I am thrilled to see this area transform from what was once a strip of dirt to become such an amazing park for residents and visitors to enjoy.”

And while the park had a steep price tag of $32 million, it was largely paid for by the Mission Bay Development Group, even though the Port of San Francisco owns the land. The Mission Bay Development Group is responsible for a lot of the new development that’s gone into the neighborhood in recent years, and per Breed’s press release, “Future plans include the addition of a restaurant or concession area in the park.”

KPIX took some sneak preview footage of the park now that the fencing has been taken down. That report notes the park also has “bioretention guardians which are kept green with stormwater where rain is going to run off a slopy, grassy hill out here,” so that seems ecologically sound. And as seen in the rendering below, the park is elevated at 14.5 feet above sea level to adjust to the rising sea levels that the city’s eastern coast is preparing for.

The Mission Bay/Mission Rock neighborhood already saw the new China Basin Park open this past April, and Bayfront Park is about a mile south of the India Basin Waterfront Park area, also called 900 Innes, that just opened in Hunters Point this past Saturday.

Related: SF’s Most New Expensive Park Opening Saturday, as India Basin Waterfront Park Spruces Up Hunters Point [SFist]

Image: @ChaseCenter via Twitter