The Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro finally got its lights Sunday -- and with them, a new dose of respect.
At least that is the hope of the locals in the broad-shouldered port neighborhood who have been fighting for the last 17 years to light the third-longest suspension bridge in California.
The 160 baby-blue lights, strung along the length of the 2.2-mile-long bridge at a cost of $1 million, were officially switched on at dusk in a ceremony attended by hundreds of San Pedro residents, including Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn.
Spectators gathered along the waterfront and on the deck of a nearby cruise ship to ooh and aah and hope that the new nighttime spectacle would bode well for the community's future.
"I absolutely love it -- it's beautiful," said Derek Tadashi Takeuchi, who owns an art gallery in downtown San Pedro. "It signifies the new direction of San Pedro. It's a sight for sore eyes."
San Pedro residents are generally proud to contrast their hard-working community with the flash and glitter of Hollywood or Bel-Air.
Apart from the graceful, green-painted frame of the Vincent Thomas Bridge, San Pedro's most visible landmarks are the cargo cranes that loom over the Harbor Freeway and the Port of Los Angeles, the nation's busiest container port. They are imposing, ungainly instruments that announce, proudly and literally, that this is where Los Angeles' heavy lifting occurs.
Yet the fight for the lights -- a pretty, frivolous addition to the waterfront skyline -- has unified San Pedro's business leaders, dockworkers and housewives.
It has been tough going since 1988, when a few locals decided to follow the lead of San Francisco, which had just lighted its Bay Bridge. They raised donations of $100 or more from hundreds of residents, and figured that the process would be as easy as stringing the lights and flipping a switch.
Instead, they ran into bureaucratic obstacles, environmental concerns and technical snafus.
One of the most serious causes of the delay was the California Coastal Commission's concern that a brighter night sky would disorient migrating birds.
A solution was arrived at about five years ago. The original plan called for tall towers of light shooting upward, much like the memorial designs for the World Trade Center in New York.
In its place, designers came up with the idea of blue, solar-powered LED lights to dot the bridge. The LED lamps operate up to 50 times longer than incandescent lighting, and save as much as 90% in energy costs.
