Thousands of multicolour LED lights danced across the Bloor Viaduct Saturday night as the city’s “Luminous Veil” was inaugurated ahead of the Pan Am games.

The veil consists of 35,000 LED lights strung across the safety barrier on the Prince Edward Viaduct. The lights respond to wind and temperature to create an ever-changing canvass.

Originally envisioned as part of the safety barrier that was erected along the bridge in 2003, the veil was illuminated tonight for the first time as part of city-wide beautification projects for the Pan Am Games.

“The bridge will be transformed into a 500-metre canvas. It’s painting in time and light. It will never look the same,” project designer Dereck Revington said in a release form the city. “There’s nothing like it in the world.”

The veil will be illuminated 365 days a year and will change with the seasons.

Speaking at the inauguration, Mayor John Tory said the project will be part of the Pan Am Games’ lasting legacy for the city.

“We’re also going to have things that survive these games as lasting legacies: a great new neoighbourhood down by the waterfront; the train to the airport that I assure you would not be running if it wasn’t for the pan Am Games; and this project right here is a part of the funding that you helped supply through your tax dollars to make something that will be here for a long time to come,” Tory said.

Tory also recognized the spot’s dubious past as a place where many people committed and attempted suicide and said the city and the country as a whole need to do a better job of taking care of people with mental health issues.

According to the city, more than 400 people took their lives jumping form the bridge form the time of its construction in 1918 until the city erected a suicide barrier in 2003.

The estimated cost of the lighting project was $2.8 million.

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