After years of restoration, the historic ferry slips at Hoboken Terminal are in use once again.

Yesterday at 10 a.m., transportation and elected officials gathered to celebrate the completion of the project, which opens the ferry slips for the first time in 40 years.

Mayor Dawn Zimmer noted that the Mile Square City is the birthplace of the steamboat ferry. “This project doesn’t just celebrate the past,” she said, “it paves the way for the future.”

The $120 million project, which was funded with state, federal and Port Authority dollars, began in April 2004 and involved repairs to deteriorated wood structures under the terminal and the construction of a 230-foot clock tower replica modeled after the original Art-Deco Lackawanna tower designed by architect Kenneth Murchison in 1907.

NJ Transit and the Port Authority also worked to reconstruct five of the original six ferry slips.

NY Waterway, which currently transports 35,000 passengers per day across the Hudson River, will provide service from the ferry slips, officials said.

NJ Transit Executive Director James Weinstein called Hoboken the “Garden State’s grand gateway.”

He noted that nearly 60,000 persons use the terminal’s commuter rail, Light Rail, bus, PATH and ferry services on a typical weekday.

Several transportation and government officials, including Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise, state Transportation Commissioner James Simpson, Freeholder Anthony Romano and Hoboken council members Ravi Bhalla, Peter Cunningham and Beth Mason took an inaugural ferry ride from one of the slips yesterday.

The ferry made a short trip into the river before looping back to Hoboken Terminal.