Hundreds of discarded wire casings, dangling cables and pried-open steel poles throughout the West Seattle Bridge corridor bear witness to a summer of prolific raids by wire thieves.

Seattle City Light now confirms 71 streetlights on the high-rise bridge and 15 on the swing bridge were damaged by vandalism and theft since early August. Some equipment is repaired, and a streetlight team was installing new wires Thursday, but there’s no set date yet to restore them all.

As thieves sought to reach valuable copper wire, they broke into other components, including a large utility cabinet and underground vaults or conduits.

Many items besides streetlights were damaged, “for thieves to better access areas with copper,” utility spokesperson Jenn Strang said.

The break-ins caused the east half

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