The San Francisco Bay Bridge is the well-worn workhorse of the region. Some 280,000 thousand cars, trucks and other vehicles cross it every day. One artist has a proposal to beautify the structure.

A string of pretty lights went up a quarter century ago to celebrate the span's 50th Anniversary, but those lights are quite ordinary compared to what's now being proposed.

Leo Villareal is the light sculpture artist with the grand idea.

"I'm not interested in the computer as an object. I'm interested in the visual manifestation of the code and what it's doing," Villareal said. "I'm taking my cues from what's here. From the oscillation of the waves, the weather, the movement of traffic, all those things are inspirations for the patterns of light I'm going to create."

He has a significant portfolio of big art using light. Villareal had exhibits of his work at the San Jose Museum of Art, Chicago's O'Hare Airport, and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. That light exhibit used 41,000 L.E.D. nodes through a 200-foot space.

In the Bay Area, Villareal and his team have been working on countless details for the Bay Bridge.

The project involves attaching 25,000 L.E.D. lights to the Western span's cables and testing them in the dark.

"When you see the patterns, you'll see things that you recognize that resonate that are taken from this area," he said. "My piece almost become a mirror of the activity all around. I think it'll work."

Villareal said he has raised half of the $8 million he said he needs for the project. There would be less than $100,000 in public money invested in the exhibit.

Andrew Fremier, from the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission, says the M.T.C. is helping shepherd the proposal through the many levels of government approvals needed.

"There is very limited public funds, only environmental studies are required," Fremier said.

If all goes according to plan, the lights will be up by the end of the year and would stay a minimum of two years.

Drivers on the Bay Bridge would not see it, but magnificent light shows would be seen from anywhere along the city's Embarcadero, Treasure Island and of course on the waters of San Francisco Bay.