MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Hernando DeSoto Bridge will look like you’ve never seen it before on Saturday night. Its inaugural “Mighty Lights” show kicks off at 7 p.m.
Crews spent months and millions of dollars designing and installing an intricate system that includes 200,000 points of light.
Harry Pratt’s company, Allen & Hoshall, helped administer the project.
“And each one can have 16 million different shades of color in each point of light,” he says.
The lights are controlled by a computer that synchronizes the lights in a number of different ways to create the show. Saturday’s show will be set to music.
“It’s pretty cool,” Pratt says.
From there, the bridge will be lit every night will full on light shows on certain nights for special events.
“New Years Eve, Valentines Day, Cancer awareness, etc. And then during those weeks they will run that light show. It will be different colors, different animations,” Pratt says.
The new lights are similar to the ones on the I-55 bridge. In fact, both bridges will have shows at the same time on some nights.
“The two light shows will be interactive. They have similar features,” Pratt says, “This is a destination now to come downtown to see the lights.”
You can watch tomorrow night’s lighting on WREG Anytime, digital-stage.wreg.com, and our Facebook page. Our special coverage starts at 6:30pm.