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:
Steven Mack
On-line link to this application story and down load Bayonne Bridge picture; http://www.ledtronics.com/Applications/ApplicationsDetail.aspx?id=75
LEDtronics LED String Lights light up Chicago’s North Michigan Avenue Trees
2009 marked the 50th anniversary of the lighting of the trees along North Michigan Avenue, which was the first street in the world to adopt this annual holiday event in 1959.
For half a century, the trees along the Magnificent Mile, the roughly mile-long stretch of North Michigan Avenue between Oak Street and the Chicago River, have been illuminated to signal the official kick-off of the holiday season in the Windy City and around the nation. This stretch—one of the top-ten hospitality, fine dining and retail districts in the world—is, in many ways, the heart of the city, a place that bustles with life year-round.
Christmas 2009 marked another milestone for the annual lighting event—the use of LED string lights to adorn the sidewalk trees lining the 900 block of Michigan Ave. called 900 West Shops. About 10 trees were festooned with 100 strings of LEDtronics string lights, replacing incandescent lights used previously and reducing energy consumption by 70%.
LEDtronics sales rep firm
involved with this application:
Mika Sales Co.
PH: (630) 243-0412
FX: (630) 243-0411
info@mikasales.com
www.mikasales.com
LEDtronics, Inc.
23105 Kashiwa CT
Torrance, CA, 90505
800-579-4875
Fax: 310-534-1424
Phone: 310-534-1505
Web: www.ledtronics.com
E-Mail: info@ledtronics.com
Product web link; http://www.ledtronics.com/product_category.aspx?id=245