In 2002, right after 9/11, eight-year-old Veronica Granite from New Jersey began
a petition drive to illuminate her hometown bridge with red, white and blue lights.
She had recently seen tricolor lighting atop the Empire State Building during
a visit to Liberty State Park and thought the Bayonne Bridge should be similarly
decorated in patriotic lights.
Her lobbying efforts inspired the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey,
which maintains the Bayonne Bridge—the fourth longest steel arch bridge
in the world.
After seven years, the historic span that connects Bayonne, New
Jersey, with Staten Island, New York, wore a necklace of red, white and blue
LED lights custom designed by LEDtronics, Inc. of Torrance, California.
Spanning the Kill Van Kull tidal strait and first opened in1931, the Bayonne
Bridge was the longest in the world until 1978. Today it carries about 20,000
vehicles per day over its four lanes.
“When we initially showed the bridge Maintenance Group the LEDtronics
180-degree fixture that is used on the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles
Harbor, they liked the concept but needed the light to be 360 degrees and in
red, white and blue,” says Jeffrey Mizel of RF Industries East, the representatives
involved with the project.
“As they also wanted to use the existing fixtures, we were provided
with samples from the bridge, and LEDtronics engineers set about designing
a BSD-1928-OPB-004—a retrofit, mogul-base, 360-degree design,” adds
Jeffrey.
It was a perfect solution. In 2009 the project was completed, and the 1,675
feet of the main arch span were illuminated with patriotic LED lighting using about 14 each of
BSD-1928-OER-004 (red), BSD-1928-TPW-004 (white) and BSD-1928-OPB-004 (blue).
The little girl, now a teenager, was inspired with what she saw.
Other than the Bayonne and the Vincent Thomas bridges, the LEDtronics BSD-1928-001 series of lights are also installed on the South Capitol Street Bridge in Washington, D.C.
Two other bridges in the area are under consideration to be retrofitted with LED lighting.
The Bayonne Bridge was dramatically blown up in the Steven Spielberg-directed
2005 movie War of the Worlds, starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning.
The products used:
BSD-1928-OER-004
BSD-1928-TPW-004
BSD-1928-OPB-004
LEDtronics Representative
involved with this application:
RF Industries East LTD
100-58 Baker Court
Island Park, NY 11558
phone: 516 889 8874
rfieast@optonline.net
Photo Courtesy:
Stephen A. Mack, Photography
