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Promenade Park, at 202 West Superior Street, on both banks of the St. Marys River at the Wells Street Bridge, is the first phase of Riverfront Fort Wayne — the project that turned the city back to face its rivers. The $25 million park opened with a grand opening weekend on August 9–11, 2019, drawing about 35,000 people in three days, and was designed, with intention that drew national notice, for full accessibility — its children's canal, canopy trail, pavilion and amphitheater were built so that visitors of every mobility level use the same park. Riverfront phases continued on both banks through the 2020s. The development record, costs and later phases are in the Fort Wayne Today chapter. The place fact is simpler, and it is why Promenade belongs in this chapter: for a city whose entire existence is a river junction, Promenade Park is the first piece of ground built, in the modern era, purely to celebrate the rivers — and its opening weekend crowd was the largest gathering on the riverfront in the city's history to that date, a claim made by the city's own opening accounts and carried here as theirs.
Sources: City of Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation, Promenade Park facilities record (opened 2019; grand opening August 9–11, 2019; approximately 35,000 opening-weekend visitors); Riverfront Fort Wayne (riverfrontfw.org); the Fort Wayne Today chapter for project costs and phases.