Bay Bridge Light Sculpture To Illuminate Iconic Span For 75th Anniversary (VIDEO)

WATCH: Amazing Bay Bridge Light Sculpture To Illuminate Iconic Span

One the grand scale of birthdays, 75 is one of the big ones.

Like any other stylish septuagenarian, the Bay Bridge is celebrating three-quarters of a century of only collapsing that one time by doing it up big, number one, first class VIP.

Bridge officials have commissioned artist Leo Villereal to create The Bay Lights--a light sculpture on the western span of the bridge's north side, facing the Ferry Building and Fisherman's Wharf. Made with 30,000 individual LEDs, Villereal's sculpture will create a shimmering canvas of lights along the bridge's suspension cables.

The lights will be visible to people looking the bridge from the outside but not to those crossing the bridge.

"The way I describe it is as an additional layer, subtle but legible," Villereal told the San Francisco Chronicle. "It activates the bridge, and it will hopefully reveal something about its environment."

The New York-based artist has placed light sculptures not only in world-renowned museums such as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and New York City's PS1, but has also created work specifically for Burning Man--conclusively proving his San Francisco bona fides.

The $7 million project will be entirely funded by private sources.

Initially proposed by His Imperial Majesty Emperor Joshua Norton I, Emperor of These United States and Protector of Mexico in the late 1800s, the Bay Bridge officially opened for traffic on November 12, 1936.

The installation is expected to go up sometime next year and will illuminate the bridge for approximately two years.

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