FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — At 318 feet long, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge is hard to miss when entering downtown Fort Wayne.

It’s even harder to miss at night when LED light strips turn the bridge into a light show.

“The standard operating is yellow and gold. Yellow and gold are city colors,” said Kyle Winling, Fort Wayne traffic engineer.

Winling is one of the few people that can change the colors on the bridge and set a “program” for the colors to run.

The MLK memorial bridge lit up red, white, and blue.
The MLK memorial bridge lit up red, white, and blue.

“I get to do the program, there are a couple in the city that can [and] I’m on the few that have it on my computer to do it,” Winling said.

For Memorial Day, Winling has a red, white and blue color scheme set up that fades purple in intervals.

“We could do red, white and blue … but we also do purple for the purple heart recipients,” Winling said.

Winling can not only pick colors, but also patterns.

The colors can pulse and move, leading to some elaborate designs.

Winling said that he has even been playing around with a program that looks like fireworks exploding for the Fourth of July.

Outside of holidays, groups can also request the bridge be set to certain colors; however, Winling said that individuals can’t make requests.

“I think if we allowed it, the bridge would be a different color every night,” Winling said.

If your organization wants to request a specific color, you can contact the city using this form.