Balancing Brilliance and Avian Migration
Tonight, after the thousands of names have been read aloud and decades-old memories have been shared, twilight will deepen to dusk and, gradually, two enormous beams of light reaching skyward will become visible in Lower Manhattan.
This is the Tribute in Light, the ethereal annual installation that evokes the Twin Towers and honors those lost on September 11, 2001. Visible throughout the metropolitan region, the Tribute shines through the night of September 11 to dawn on September 12.
Located atop the Battery Garage, at the intersection of West and Edgar Streets, the installation consists of 88 7,000-watt xenon bulbs, each about two feet in diameter, arranged in a pair of 48-foot squares.
Last Thursday night, September 5, with technicians, VIPs, and press in attendance, the 2024 Tribute in Light was tested. Given a signal, workers began to walk among the rows of bulbs, turning on each one individually. Within a minute, all 88 bulbs were shining, and two massive, humming rectangles of light shot upward. Lookouts positioned around New York City and New Jersey viewed the twin beams from remote posts and reported back that all systems were go. Noting that the northern bank of lights is only a few feet from the facade of 50 West Street, a 64-story residential tower, State Assembly Member Charles Fall, who contributed funds to support the installation and was observing the preparations, said, “Yeah, the people who live there are not too happy about it.”
Birds passing through New York City during fall migration don’t like the lights, either. Disoriented by bright light, they can get caught in the beams, circling until they fall to the ground from exhaustion. Since 2002, however, monitors from the NYC Bird Alliance (formerly NYC Audubon) have had an agreement with Tribute organizers to turn off the lights if more than 1,000 birds are circling. Every 20 minutes, Bird Alliance volunteers record the number of birds in and around the light beams.
Northwest winds in particular can bring heavy migration, and if those winds coincide with a low cloud ceiling, many birds can get trapped in the Tribute light beams. According to the NYC Bird Alliance, “the evening of September 11, 2010, was one of those nights: thousands of birds were drawn to the lights. Similarly, in 2015 the lights had to be turned off a record eight times to allow thousands of birds to migrate safely over New York City.”
Most years, however, the lights need to be turned off only a few times during the night to let birds disperse. “And many years,” said the Alliance’s Andrew Maas, “we have not had to ask them to turn off the lights. The number of birds is very dependent on local weather conditions during and leading up to that night each year. Each year is different.”
Tribute in Light was originally conceived in 2002 by John Bennett, Gustavo Boneverdi, Richard Nash Gould, Julian LaVerdiere, and Paul Myoda, with lighting consultant Paul Marantz — unconnected artists and designers brought together by the Municipal Art Society and Creative Time. Today, Tribute in Light is produced by Michael Ahern Production Services. For the second year, the presenting sponsor is Con Edison.