NATCHEZ, Miss. – The mayor’s plan continues to be stymied for a decorative illumination of the Natchez-Vidalia bridges across the Mississippi River even though Natchez received $500,000 for this last year from the Mississippi Legislature.
“It has proven to be cost-prohibitive,” Mayor Dan Gibson said of his earlier vision to install special-effect, multicolored lights to make the two bridges a sightseeing spectacle that was estimated to cost more than $5 million.
Gibson said the state’s half-million-dollar allocation will be used to design and engineer the bridges’ scaled-down illumination, but more money will be needed for the actual installation.
The bridges had aesthetic white lights installed in 2010, but they deteriorated and were removed in 2018. The lights gave the bridges an icy glow.
Since taking office in 2020, Gibson has made relighting the bridges a high priority and sought state and federal funds for this. He also enlisted the technical help of two lighting companies – Arkansas-based Curtis Stout and Lumenpulse of Canada – that specialize in special-effect illuminations and bridge lighting. They’ve been involved in shining such landmarks as the Mississippi Capitol, the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock and the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge in Connecticut.
Dark sky would be nice. Waste of money and bad for environment.