The Bay Lights Are Back, and the Best Views are From Treasure Island

The Bay Lights have returned to the western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge with a Grand Lighting on March 20, bringing back one of the most beloved public artworks in the world, rebuilt from the ground up and brighter than ever. 

Treasure Island offers one of the best views in the city. Few places in the Bay Area offer a front-row experience of the installation quite like this one.

A Work of Art Worthy of the Bay

Created by light artist Leo Villareal and produced by the San Francisco nonprofit Illuminate, The Bay Lights first debuted on March 5, 2013, and immediately became part of the city’s identity. Spanning 1.8 miles along the northern cable plane of the Bay Bridge’s western span, the installation wove 25,000 individually programmable LEDs into a living, ever-shifting composition that rose 500 feet above the water. 

The Bay Lights went dark in 2023 after a decade on the bridge, when the original installation needed upgrading. What’s returned is a reinvention and proof that wonder has a place in the everyday. The 2026 installation features 48,000 custom-engineered LEDs, purpose-built for the bridge’s demanding marine environment by Musco Lighting, a global leader in large-scale illumination. It’s designed to endure for years to come. 

The Grand Lighting

The Bay Lights returned with a celebratory Grand Lighting on Friday, March 20, a date that also marked the 92nd birthday of Willie L. Brown, the former San Francisco mayor and longtime champion of the project. 

The return was made possible through $11 million in private support, funded entirely by a coalition of philanthropic leaders and more than 1,300 individual donors who believe, as Illuminate founder Ben Davis put it, that awe can be part of a city’s identity. 

The Best View Is on the Island

There are plenty of places around the Bay to take in The Bay Lights, but Treasure Island sits right in the middle of it all, between San Francisco and Oakland, surrounded by water, with an unobstructed view of the western span that’s hard to match anywhere else.

On clear evenings, the bridge is already a presence from the Island, close enough to feel part of your horizon, and far enough to take the whole thing in. Now that the lights have returned, that view feels even more extraordinary. 

Make a Night of It

The return of The Bay Lights is reason enough to spend an evening on the Island. Here’s how to do it right. 

Start with dinner at Mersea Restaurant & Bar, right on the waterfront. The space is built from repurposed shipping containers, with tables made from old Treasure Island bowling alley lanes, and the menu from Executive Chef Parke Ulrich (Waterbar, EPIC Steak) is the kind of comfort-casual cooking that earns a #1 TripAdvisor ranking. Mersea is first-come, first-served with open seating and counter service, so arrive early and settle in. 

For a deeper dive into what makes Gold Bar special, the Gold Bar Distillery & Tasting Room is just down the road. It’s a working distillery set inside a restored 1930s Art Deco terminal, with cocktail classes and tasting room hours that draw visitors from across the Bay Area. 

However you spend your evening, make sure to step outside. From Treasure Island, The Bay Lights aren’t something you simply catch a glimpse of. They’re the whole view.

Learn more about The Bay Lights at illuminate.org. 

Interested in calling Treasure Island home? Explore available residences at https://tisf.com/live-here/.