Seattle's new waterfront park applauded by first visitors. But will it fulfill its economic potential?

The long-awaited Overlook Walk opened Friday, linking the Pike Place Market to Seattle's renovated waterfront.

Over the weekend, thousands of visitors experienced it for the first time.

If you wanted to be cheeky, you could call the overlook walk a $70 million staircase connecting Seattle’s waterfront to the Pike Place Market.

But it’s so much more than that. For one, it’s a series of public open spaces with panoramic views.

“This is a transformation on the scale of which other cities can’t even begin to think about," said park designer James Corner at the opening celebration on Friday. "Remember what was here. The viaduct, the noise, the darkness, the complete severance of the city from its waterfront.”

Planning for the project began 15 years ago, back during Mayor Greg Nickels' time. Mayor Bruce Harrell now calls it the cornerstone of his downtown activation plan.

It's not hard to see why. The waterfront and the Pike Place Market are the two most successful parts of downtown's retail economy. Draw a line through those two points, representing the Overlook Walk. Now imagine that line as an arrow in a bow, its string taut, ready to release its economic energy into the heart of downtown.

Whether it works or not remains to be seen.

This weekend, Seattle residents and visitors took in the Overlook Walk for the first time.

Tom Chow brought his mother to see it. He said before the Overlook Walk opened, they used to take an elevator through a dark parking garage to get from the Pike Place Market to the waterfront.

"I think it's way better than before," he said. "Nice and clean. It's going to be a new thing [to see] for a lot of visitors coming over. People are going to spend a lot of money. It's good for the economy."

Rob D'Arc is a puppeteer who occupies one of the artists' live-work studios on the Overlook Walk.

The artists' studios used to be on a dead end, since years of construction on the project stopped people from traveling any farther down that path.

But now that the Overlook Walk is open, hundreds of people walk by his front door every day. His cat, who used to love to sun herself on his front stoop, is a little freaked out about that.

D'Arc's still waiting to see whether the greater exposure is good or bad for him. On the one hand, it could bring in more customers. On the other hand, it could make him feel vulnerable, like his cat.

"It's going to be interesting to see what happens at night," he said. "Because there's supposedly going to be some security. I know it's connected through Seattle Center, and there are rangers, and such like that. So I don't know what it's going to be like, but it's security at night [and] being that I live here as well as work here, that has got me a little concerned."

Down on the amphitheater-like wooden steps near the bottom of the Overlook Walk, Alika Larsen sat listening to music and looking out over Elliot Bay.

"This is monetizing the best thing that Seattle has to offer, and it's this view right here," he said. "It's absolutely gorgeous."

Larsen, who works remotely most days, travels to his downtown Seattle office from the Kitsap Peninsula once a week. But the overlook walk has given him new incentive to come into the office.

"If I can sneak down here for lunch break, I'm going to do lunch down here," he said. "I will come here as often as I can to replenish my soul."