(Bloomberg) -- Transit riders in downtown Manhattan’s new subwayhub snapped photos and craned necks to gaze up at the 53-foot glassenclosure that crowns the $1.4 billion Fulton Center.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority opened the site today,replacing a decaying underground warren. It links nine differentlines to accommodate 300,000 daily riders and renovates a stationthat was partially ruined in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.Riders are met with digital signs, polished tiles and amplesunlight.

“This is arguably one of our first 21st century transit hubs inNew York,” said Richard Sarrach, an architecture professor at PrattInstitute in New York. “It’s really a proper arrival point forhundreds of thousands of people every single day.”

It wasn’t an easy path. Initial plans called for a $750 millionrenovation that would finish in 2007. The MTA in 2009 pushed theopening to 2014. Still, gone are the days of rushing through a darkand dirty station. At Fulton Street, appreciative remarks could beheard above the normal chatter of the city.

“It’s dazzling,” Steven Donnely, a 42-year-old free-lancewriter, said while looking up at the skylight.

Rare Gem

Trains ran on schedule during the first morning commute, saidKevin Ortiz, an MTA spokesman. The agency added staff to helpriders navigate the new facility, which also includes 65,000 squarefeet of retail space.

The station stands out in a region that depends on a masstransit system devised and constructed in haphazard fashionbeginning in the early 1900s.

Riders have grown accustomed to subway stations with crackedfloors, leaking ceilings and narrow passageways. Suburban commutersbemoan the 1963 demolition of the original Pennsylvania Station,designed in the Beaux-Arts style. Its replacement, which serves NewJersey Transit, the Long Island Rail Road and six MTA subway lines,is a grimy, low-ceilinged maze folded under Madison SquareGarden.

The new Fulton Center is the first major station renovation forthe MTA, the largest U.S. mass-transit system, since its 2009overhaul of its South Ferry station at the southernmost tip ofManhattan. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 destroyed that $527 millionmakeover. The MTA expects to reopen the renovated South Ferrystation in 2017.

Form, Function

Today, passengers making their maiden voyages through FultonCenter said they found it both beautiful and workable.

“It’s a really functional work of art,” said Phil Wilde, 63, afilmmaker. “I just walked around and could feel like I was going inall the right directions.”

Getting passengers to and from the different subway platforms inan easier, more direct way was a key part of the renovation. Thereare 10 escalators, 15 elevators and brightly lit paths to directriders to trains.

The aesthetic centerpiece is a 53-foot-diameter glass and steelshell that hangs over the site’s atrium. The structure, called theSky Reflector-Net, allows year-round daylight. The spiralingstructure includes 952 reflective panels attached to a cablesystem.

“Customers are getting off the train and are in essencesurprised or in awe,” Ortiz said.

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