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Sparking
blue lights adorn LA Harbour Bridge
March 28,
2005. Associated Press of Pakistan
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WASHINGTON, Ma 28 (APP)-
Los Angeles’ Harbour Bridge sparkled into light recently.
The Blue LED lamps that crown the bridge’s cables were provided by
Southern California-located LEDtronics Inc., owned by Pakistani-American
Pervaiz Lodhie.
"They work as we expected, but seeing all the LED lamps lit up was amazing," remarked
Lodhie, while community members have thanked him for making them proud.
It is the official welcoming monument for the City of Los Angeles. As the
3rd longest suspension bridge in California, behind the Golden Gate and
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, it is
source of local pride.
LEDs are small but strikingly bright lights that use only a fraction of
the electricity incandescent lights consume. Additionally, they ope! rate
for years and are nearly indestructible.
At the ceremony, Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn threw the switch and the
lights sparkled for the first time on the Vincent Thomas Bridge. The Bridge
was adorned with the lights after long 17 years.
Funding, energy shortages, migrating birds and a pair of nesting peregrine
falcons had all thwarted previous attempts to string lights across the
mile-long span. While frustrating, the delays proved beneficial in the
end. Advances in lighting technology enabled the ideal solution - Blue
LEDs, which weren’t available in 1988 when the campaign began to
light the bridge.
The Vincent Thomas Bridge is visible to diners at the nearby Ports-of-Call
restaurants, vacationers onboard the Princess Cruise liners, and to all
vessels entering or exiting the main channel of the Los Angeles Harbour,
the busiest port in the United States and the eighth busiest in the world,
says a report by Loretta A. Conley.
Lodhie was brought into the project by Lighting Design Alliance of Long
Beach who, on the behalf of the Vincent Thomas Bridge Lighting Committee,
investigated LEDs as a viable solution for lighting the bridge. |
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