Bay Bridge's 'Bay Lights' LED light display was difficult to turn off

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Ben Davis of Illuminate relaxes on the catwalk as he stands on the outside of the Bay Bridge's center anchorage in San Francisco on Thursday. Davis along with Caltrans worked to cut the power to the "Bay Lights."

A worker dangles from the underside of the Bay Bridge as he paints on Thursday in San Francisco .

Caltrans engineer Saeed Shahmirzai pulls the plug on the "Bay Lights" in the Bay Bridge's center anchorage in San Francisco Thursday.

Caltrans engineer Saeed Shahmirzai (left) shows colleague Bart Ney where he's cut the power to the "Bay Lights" in the Bay Bridge's center anchorage in San Francisco.

Ben Davis of Illuminate moments after the power to the "Bay Lights" was cut off in the Bay Bridge's Center Anchorage in San Francisco Thursday.

Raising $11 million to fund a bigger, better version of San Francisco's stunning "Bay Lights" — the famous LED light sculpture on the Bay Bridge — was supposed to be the difficult part. Turns out killing the old, malfunctioning version is even tougher.

I learned this the hard way Thursday morning standing on a narrow walkway just under the roar of traffic on the bridge's western span and 150 feet above the shimmering bay waters. As I navigated the dizzingly high walkway, I started to think this reporting adventure might have been poorly conceived.

The idea for the unusual field trip formed after the "Bay Lights" mysteriously flickered back to life on March 12, a week after their creator turned them off from afar using a computer. But even after Ben Davis, founder of Illuminate, a nonprofit that creates light-filled public art, fixed the technological glitch that caused the lights to turn back on, some particularly busted strands remained stubbornly aglow.

"The ‘Bay Lights’ just won't go easy into the night," Davis joked. "They want to live."

Clearly, killing the old lights wasn't a job for a computer. Humans had to literally pull the plug on site, and I opted to join them. But like with so many best laid plans in San Francisco, the plug-pulling proved nearly impossible.

Bart Ney of Caltrans (left) and another worker make their way down the ladder and onto the catwalk on the outside of the Bay Bridge's center anchorage in San Francisco Thursday.

I broke the news in January that Davis had determined the 25,000 LED lights composing the decade-old display spanning 1.8 miles across the bridge were so decrepit, it was no longer worth repairing them. Instead, he announced, he’d turn the old lights off and raise $11 million for a new light sculpture with twice as many lights viewable to far more people around the bay. He pledged the new lights would be sturdier and withstand the bay's fog, wind and rain much better.

By March 5, the day Davis first tried turning off the old lights, he’d raised $6.25 million from a host of deep-pocketed donors including Jan Koum, the founder of WhatsApp; Jerry Dodson, the founder of Parnassus Investments; Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress; and Toni and Arthur Rembe Rock, philanthropists who worked in law and venture capital, respectively.

Since then, regular folks have donated a combined $108,000. Plus, Tad and Dianne Taube, philanthropists who made their money in real estate, have announced a $500,000 match if new donors cough up that much, too. The Taubes were also among the donors to the original "Bay Lights."

"It's a big part of the flavor of San Francisco," Dianne Taube told me. "We, of course, want to join the effort to relight the Bay Bridge."

But you can't relight a bridge until the old lights are fully extinguished, and that was the goal Thursday morning. Davis said it was a little embarrassing trying to raise money for new lights when he couldn't get the old ones to turn off, but he took the hiccup in stride, even brainstorming New York Post-style headlines. The best? "Son of a Glitch."

The trip to kill the lights began tellingly when I met up with Davis and very patient Caltrans workers at the agency's facility near the base of the Bay Bridge. The gate to let us in wasn't working.

Bart Ney (left) and Saeed Shahmirzai (right) work to open the door to the Bay Bridge's center anchorage in San Francisco Thursday. They were there to cut the power to the "Bay Lights" installation.

"I can hear your lead already," Davis told me, shaking his head.

After a call for help, we finally got inside and piled into Saeed Shahmirzai's car. The senior construction manager for Zoon Engineering does work on the bridge, as well as other infrastructure projects around the region. He’d timed our trek with a lane closure for maintenance so we could park just over the "Bay Lights"’ power source.

Shahmirzai said he misses seeing the "Bay Lights" in their former glory.

"It looks like something is definitely missing on the bridge," he said. "It's painful looking at it."

We parked in the left lane and climbed over the side of the bridge on narrow ladders down to the walkway leading to the plugs. I’ve always loved being high up with great views of our gorgeous city and have ventured with delight to the top of Sutro Tower, the Transamerica Pyramid and Grace Cathedral. Like those days, this excursion was exciting — at first.

The views of Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower and the Hunters Point crane on the bright, sunny day were beautiful. Sailboats glided beneath the bridge. Seagulls swooped past. Cormorants bobbed in the water. Davis, a hype man for San Francisco, mused about new mottos for the spectacular, yet struggling city that needs all the hype it can get.

A boat cruising through the water is seen from under the Bay Bridge in San Francisco on Thursday.

"Philadelphia is the City of Brotherly Love. Paris is the City of Light. Los Angeles is the City of Angels. San Francisco is the City of Awe," he said. "It's always been a place that fills you with awe naturally, but it's really a reminder to all of us about the place we love and its capacity to inspire."

But soon, the mood went from awe to "ah, crap."

Turns out the recent winter storms badly damaged the lock on the door to the space where the "Bay Lights’" power source is located. Shahmirzai and a host of Caltrans workers used a hammer, a crowbar, various drills and WD-40, but couldn't get inside.

A key broke off in the lock. A drill bit got caught in it. Tina Tsui, a painter on the bridge, worked with so much effort, her hard hat flew off and over the edge, landing 150 feet below next to a 1,500-pound fog bell created in 1935 when the bridge was built.

But Tsui and the rest of the crew simply would not give up.

"This has never happened to us!" Shahmirzai said while trying with great determination to open the damn door.

"Saeed's working like Tom Cruise in ‘Mission: Impossible,’ " said Bart Ney, Caltrans’ spokesperson.

We waited and waited, shooting the breeze as the real breeze got colder and colder. Ney, a big fan of the "Bay Lights," said he considers the region's workhorse bridge the real masterpiece with the lights serving to enhance it.

Caltrans engineer Saeed Shahmirzai pulls the plug on the "Bay Lights" in the Bay Bridge's center anchorage in San Francisco.

Davis talked about other Illuminate projects — ones that are going better. The city has extended the permits for his Golden Mile on JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park — featuring yellow Adirondack chairs, Doggie Diner heads and a whimsical whale tail — through Leap Day 2024.

"I’ve heard it described as the happiest place in San Francisco," Davis said.

But that walkway in the wind was more like the most stressful place in San Francisco. After nearly two hours of trying, the door still remained firmly closed at 12:40 p.m., and we had to be back at the car in 20 minutes when the lane would reopen. The dedicated crew said they’d try for a couple more minutes — and finally, the lock came off, and they pried the door open at 12:42 p.m.

We hustled inside the bridge's center anchorage and down a staircase to a black cabinet housing the "Bay Lights’" power source. Shahmirzai pulled out three plugs, and we hustled back up, across the walkway, over the side of the bridge and back into the car at 1:01 p.m., speeding off toward Oakland to make a U-turn.

"If those lights come back on now … " Davis said.

So far, so good. As darkness fell Thursday night, the old Bay Lights appeared well and truly dead.

Reach Heather Knight: [email protected]; Twitter: @hknightsf