With four shopping days until Christmas, the new $7 million First Street bridge was scheduled to open this morning as a gift to holiday shoppers.

For the first time since May 2004, traffic will be able to flow in and out of downtown on First Street over Napa Creek. The bridge is expected to carry 6,000 vehicles a day, said Barry Martin, a city spokesman.

News of the bridge opening, announced Tuesday morning, had Cathy Salerno, president of the Napa Downtown Association, jubilant. The 19-month closure of a major access street to downtown had been a hardship for stores and restaurants, she said.

Today's planned opening "will be good for people shopping for last-minute gifts," she said.

Workers had been racing in recent weeks to complete final bridge work amid rain storms. Lane stripping was completed only Tuesday morning as was anti-graffiti protection, Martin said.

Like the bridge it replaces, the 344-foot span will carry one lane of traffic in each direction, but it will also have two bicycle lanes and wider sidewalks.

The new bridge is much higher and longer, spanning not only Napa Creek but the planned flood bypass channel which won't be built for two years.

This is the last of the three major downtown bridges that support the flood control project and, as far as Martin is concerned, the best looking.

The first two on Third Street over the river and Soscol Avenue over the bypass are four lanes and much bigger, Martin said. The First Street bridge is "thinner, with a more graceful appearance," he said.

The bridge is lit with Victorian-style lights, with a gleaming bronze handrail that should acquire a pleasing patina with age, Martin said.

Originally scheduled to open in September, the bridge was delayed by unexpected construction problems and last-minute changes in light design.

The bridge will open with eight missing lights, including triple-headers at the four corners. They will be installed in coming weeks without obstructing traffic, Martin said.

This sleek new concrete span replaces a Civil War-era stone bridge that was disassembled and put into storage, awaiting the day that the city has a location and the funds to reassemble it.

The final bridge replacement will be the First Street span over the Napa River next to Copia. That project isn't scheduled to start until 2007 and should inconvenience far fewer motorists, Martin said.

The flood project will also be building two bridges for the Napa Valley Wine Train.

The city of Napa is in charge of the downtown bridge replacements, which are all in support of the flood project.

The total cost of the new First Street bridge is $10 million, with the federal government paying 80 percent and the flood project the remainder.