Get Ready To See The George Washington Bridge Glowing Every Night Heading Into Fall

Sep 2

Photo courtesy of Veronica Yacono. @photo_moto_v

From Occasional Glow to Nightly Ritual

For nearly a century, the towers of the George Washington Bridge lit up only a handful of times a year — for holidays, tributes, and the occasional special event. That changed this summer. Ahead of the nation's 250th birthday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey flipped the switch on a new era for one of the region's most recognizable landmarks: permanent, nightly illumination.

The bridge, built in 1927 and opened to traffic in 1931, had never lit its towers on a nightly basis in its history — until now. The Port Authority announced that, effective immediately as of June 29, 2026, the two towers will shine every night from dusk until 10 p.m.

A ceremonial lighting took place at 9 p.m. on Monday, June 29, 2026, led by Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia. The timing wasn't an accident — the bridge served as the backdrop for Sail4th 250, a celebration featuring roughly 80 tall ships that paraded up the Hudson River on July 4 as part of the country's 250th anniversary festivities.

A Long-Overdue LED Upgrade

The nightly display was made possible by a full overhaul of the bridge's lighting hardware. Nearly 800 traditional bulbs were first installed on the bridge's towers back in 2000, and for a quarter century they were switched on only for major holidays and special occasions. By the end of 2025, every one of those bulbs had been replaced with energy-efficient LEDs.

The results, according to the Port Authority and its lighting contractor, are substantial:

The retrofit delivered a 50–75% reduction in wattage across the fixtures on the bridge and the Trans-Manhattan Expressway.
Color rendering — essentially how true-to-life colors appear under the lights — jumped from a CRI of 22 to 80.
The new fixtures are rated for 100,000 hours of lamp life, far outlasting the bulbs they replaced.
Separately, the Port Authority says the LED conversion is producing a 40% reduction in cost and energy usage compared with the old system.

This wasn't the bridge's first brush with LED technology. Back in 2009, the Port Authority replaced all 156 "necklace lights" — the lights strung along the handrail ropes of the suspension cables — making the GW Bridge the first bridge in the region to fully convert its necklace lights to LED.

Testing for the tower relighting actually began quietly months earlier. In January 2026, uptown Manhattan residents noticed the towers glowing night after night — the Port Authority was running the newly installed LEDs through a holiday-season test period, with the relamping project expected to wrap up in February 2026.

Why It Matters

The lighting upgrade sits inside a much larger effort. The Port Authority's Restoring the George program is a $2 billion, multi-year rehabilitationof the span, which has included replacing all 592 suspender ropes that connect the roadway to the bridge's main cables.

There's one notable exception to the new "lights on every night" rule: for the sake of local wildlife, the towers will go completely dark during peak migratory bird seasons — mid-March through mid-April, and again from late August through mid-November.

At 94 years old, the George Washington Bridge remains a genuine engineering landmark — it was the world's longest main bridge span when it opened and is still described today as the world's busiest bridge. Port Authority Chairman Kevin O'Toole framed the new nightly glow as more than décor, saying the lit towers highlight the bridge's importance to the region and put a spotlight on the agency's engineering and bridge staff.

What used to be a once-in-a-while spectacle is now simply part of the nightly skyline — a quiet, energy-efficient reminder of a century-old crossing that isn't going dark again anytime soon.