Pulling the Plug on the Bay Bridge’s Light Installation

The massive light installation that has twinkled along the western span of the Bay Bridge for the past 10 years is powering down this weekend. But the group behind the project is planning for an even brighter future.

Illuminate, the San Francisco nonprofit that launched The Bay Lights in March 2013, has recently had trouble maintaining the installation and plans to pull the plug on Sunday, March 5—a decade to the day of the project’s opening ceremony, KRON 4 reported.

Illuminate—known for lighting up San Francisco’s pink triangle since 2020 and beaming a four-mile-long rainbow flag down Market Street during Pride Month—does not intend to let the Bay Bridge go dark for long.

The group has a new bridge-lighting vision, which will bring twice the number of lights to the Bay Bridge. They’re calling it The Bay Lights 360.

Illuminate is currently soliciting donations for the project, with a goal of raising $11 million. The proposed installation will feature nearly 50,000 LEDs, which will be “visible on both sides of the bridge and to drivers entering San Francisco on the bridge,” according to the organization’s website. “The Bay Lights 360 will be viewable throughout San Francisco, Treasure Island, Yerba Buena Island, Oakland and in other parts of the East Bay.”

Those interested in donating to the cause can do so by clicking here.