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Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan were on hand to mark this final stage of the project.

"It's an historic moment. It's very rare,” said Sadik-Khan. “I do think it's very exciting to see this new bridge float into place."

The new 350-foot long, 2,400-ton span replaces the 109-year-old bridge of the same name connecting Harlem and the South Bronx.

"At some point it becomes easier and cheaper to redo and replace then repair," said Bloomberg. "And that's exactly what's happened with the old Willis Avenue Bridge."

The $612-million bridge was built in the Albany area over the past year-and-a-half and then made its way up the Hudson River last month.

"We had to carefully, using tugs, push the barges with the bridge on top of it, right in its exact position over the center pier,” explained Jim Cusack, the Department of Transportation engineer in charge of the project.

The positioning will enable the "swing bridge" to open on a pivot and allow marine traffic through.

The old bridge carried about 70,000 vehicles every day.

Bloomberg says the new bridge is wider and the set up will make for an easier ride for motorists.

“The old Willis Avenue Bridge, when it was built, the road system leading in and out of it was different, so there are a lot of tight turns and this bridge won't have that,” said the mayor. “The ramps that come off the bridge will feed you much more smoothly into the roads, both in the Bronx and in Manhattan."

The new bridge will undergo a series of tests in the coming months and is expected to be opened to traffic sometime in the fall. The current bridge will be floated away and scrapped.