BUFFALO, N.Y. — It's a day many have been waiting for: The Buffalo Heritage Carousel at Canalside opens Friday.

It's a project that has been almost 20 years in the making. Now, the nearly 100-year-old carousel is making a new debut.

The people behind the project say it's a long time coming. The director for development says the idea to bring a carousel to Buffalo started in 2003. After planning for quite some time, they broke ground in 2019, and now, it's finally open.

The carousel itself was originally built in 1924 by Spillman Engineering, which was located in North Tonawanda at the time. It had a life outside of Western New York and was found stored in Ohio when the board purchased it.

Renovating it was no easy task. The director says it took about 200 hours per animal on the carousel. There are 34 animals and three chariots.

Officials hope people can learn a lot from this ride.

"The carousel is actually the perfect marriage in some ways to show the past with preservation and manufacturing and show what our future looks like with a Tesla solar roof on top," said Carima El-Behairy, the carousel's director. "We are hoping to use the carousel as a teaching classroom so that when people come in, they are attracted by the carousel, but they learn something when they leave."

It only costs $1 to ride, and there is also an ADA-compliant chariot so everyone can get a chance to enjoy it.