"This is another step on the road to implementing the peace agreement with Israel," said Palestinian brigadier general Ziad al-Atrash at a ceremony at the bridge, a gateway to Palestinian-ruled Jericho and an important link to the Arab world.
Israel will retain overall responsibility for the crossing point and will be responsible for traffic to and from the rest of the West Bank, which are still under its rule.
Also Tuesday, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel ordered that an 11-day closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip be lifted and 8,000 entry permits issued to Palestinian construction workers.
Laborers were not expected to get past army checkpoints until Wednesday, however, when all the permits had been handed out, a military spokeswoman said.
The closure of the West Bank and Gaza, which prevented 60,250 Palestinians from reaching jobs in Israel, was imposed Oct. 20, a day after the bombing of a bus in Tel Aviv, which killed 22 people and a Palestinian suicide attacker. Many families were also separated.
Meanwhile at the border with Egypt in self-ruled Gaza, Israel on Monday handed over part of the passenger terminal to Palestinians, giving them their first measure of control over a crossing point with an Arab country.
Under the May 4 accord that set up autonomy in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank enclave around Jericho, Palestinian officials are to work alongside Israelis at the two international crossing points.
Officials from both sides said the Palestinians will start operating their sections, handling passengers to and from the Gaza and Jericho, beginning Wednesday.
Israeli officials said the closure of the Gaza Strip and West Bank was being lifted because it was causing hardship to Palestinians generally and to the PLO leadership.
Rabin told PLO leader Yasser Arafat at a summit in Morocco on Sunday that the measure would gradually be lifted in the hope of easing economic strains in the autonomous Gaza Strip.
But the Israeli officials said that eventually Israel and the PLO would have to work out an agreement to make the Palestinian economy less reliant on Israel.
More than 110,000 Palestinians worked in Israel before the Palestinian uprising began in December 1987.
But as a result of repeated closures the number has fallen, and Israel's government has brought in tens of thousands of foreign workers to replace Palestinians.
In a related development, Israeli newspapers reported that the joint Jewish-Islamic Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron would once again be reopened to the public around Nov. 7.
The tomb has been closed since Feb. 25, when a Jewish settler massacred 29 Palestinians.
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