Light the Bridge

I stumbled on this through those ads on the side on Facebook that no one ever looks at, but I'm happy I did cause it's a really cool thing.

A small geography lesson before we delve in: Edmonton is divided into the north and south sides by the North Saskatchewan River. Actually, the city kind of looks like a no smoking sign, with the Anthony Henday ring road around the city and then the river cutting diagonally through. There are 19 bridges or crossings that allow you to walk, bike, drive or LRT from one side of the river to the other. One of these is the High Level Bridge.

During our first trip out here in July, we walked over the High Level Bridge from Garneau (south side) to the north side of the city, which I believe is considered the downtown core or CBD (central business district) if you're from outside of North America. This southbound-only bridge made up of "steel trusses on concrete piers" (à la Wiki) turns into 109 Street on either side of the river, is 777m long, and was opened exactly 100 years ago this year. Still a young buck. Not just a bridge for vehicles, there are pedestrian walkways on either side of the lane ways, which double as 2-way bike lanes, and the upper deck is where the High Level Streetcar runs along in the summer.

While walking on the bridge that first time, we thought: wouldn't it be cool if this thing lit up? Actually, we had heard from someone somewhere that they do light the bridge and that there might even be a waterfall-type fountain off the bridge at some point. We had never actually found evidence of either, but always the engineer, David actually looked for the lights and only found some pipes where water may have potentially spouted out from.

Spouties where we think water for a fountain would come from.

And then today, I find this. Which then leads me to this: http://www.lightthebridge.ca.

Basically, Light the Bridge is a completely donation-based initiative to outfit the High Level Bridge in thousands of smart, programmable LEDs. This will not only literally make the city a little brighter, but also bring together Edmontonians to support their city one bulb at a time. What a cool concept. What's more is that they're encouraging people to donate a bulb in memory or on behalf of someone who has lit up their lives in some way. Those should be reasons enough. But if you needed another: they will also be able to tell you where to locate your exact light bulb once it's completed. Umm, that's pretty freakin' cool.

Wouldn't it be awesome to see this thing lit up at night?! Ya, it would.

So like it. Share it. Donate.

Now if only it had a fountain...