Travel

San Francisco Bay Bridge: Time for it to Shine

San Francisco Bay Bridge: Time for it to Shine
Bernadine Racoma

It had always been overshadowed by its more popular cousin, the world famous Golden Gate Bridge. Now it is the time for the San Francisco Bay Bridge to shine, and by that, it means literally, to shine, with more than 25,000 LED lights! The Bay Lights started on March 5, 2013.

San Francisco Bay Bridge

It’s construction was finished on November 12, 1936, six months before the Golden Gate Bridge was finished in 1937. Yet it did not gain that much fame as its younger cousin. The bridge, officially the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge is more locally known simply as Bay Bridge. It provides a direct connection between San Francisco and Oakland, crossing the San Francisco Bay. It has one of the longest spans in the world and has a total length of 4.46 miles.

The Project

A project to turn the bridge into a huge art installation was conceived two years ago. It was named “The Bay Lights.” Conceptualized by artist and technologist Leo Villareal, the lights will illuminate the western span of Bay Bridge. The 1.8 mile length of the bridge will be installed with 25,000 LED lights. It will not just be lights that will provide illumination at night. It will be individually programmed and its unique algorithm will then create a lighted display that will never repeat. The display will be seen from San Francisco and viewing points north of the bridge. It incorporates the powers of high technology (computer programming) and art, with the images shifting randomly.

Donors

The project attracted several of the biggest names, companies and people in the technology business. All the funds for the ambitious project have come from private donations. The project aims to have the art installation going, lighting Bay Bridge with its incredible light display every night from March 5,2013 until 2015, from dusk until 2:00 in the morning. Investors in the project include bigwigs such as Marissa Meyer, Yahoo! CEO; Ron Conway, investor and founder of SV Angel; Paul Buchheit, creator and developer of Gmail and Google Adsense and now a partner in Y Combinator, an investment firm; Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress, and Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, provider of online games such as Farm Ville.

Funds

It is estimated that the whole project, to last from 2013 until 2015, would cost $8.8 million. Six million dollars have so far been raised, and the amount went to the installation of what is considered to be the largest LED light sculpture in the world.

It is expected that around 50 million people will be able to view the incredible display. The city hopes that it will be one of the city’s major attractions in the next two years, which would mean about $97 million in local government income.

Video by: TheNewYorkTimes

 

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