By early next year, drivers cruising from Oakland to San Francisco will see ripples of light as they cross the western span of the Bay Bridge.
The spectacle, called Bay Lights 360, comprises 50,000 custom-made LEDs all sparkling from the bridge’s cables. Crews began installing the equipment last December to illuminate one of the recognizable silhouettes in Bay Area infrastructure, making the bridge just as Instagram-worthy as the Embarcadero skyline.
This second version of Bay Lights takes the same form as the original that debuted in 2013, but went dark 10 years later owing to brutal weather conditions along the water. Artist Leo Villareal conceived both iterations of the project, carrying lessons from the first into the second. Bay Lights 360 will have bespoke engineering to withstand wind, marine air and car exhaust. And this time Villareal has doubled the number of lights…