BRIDGES began work Oct 1st, 2020. As of Feb 2021, the staging and development labs at GMU and ECU are prepared and have begun receiving year 1 hardware and software for installation, configuration, and testing. Staffing is one software/systems developer short still. The year 1 equipment is expected to be installed in Ashburn, VA (outside Washington DC) in [late] March, and the equipment for Paris is planned for April install. The first 100Gbps waves - the southern trans-Atlantic wave - will be placed in service in the late April timeframe between Washington and Paris. The first testbed projects will be brought onboard In the May 2021 time frame as soon as the Paris and Washington nodes are operational and the trans-Atlantic link is up and verified. BRIDGES plans to physically interconnect Internet2 (in the US) and GEANT (in the EU) in order to deliver users or other projects across those production infrastructures to reach the BRIDGES research facility. BRIDGES also plans to physically connect FABRIC, SLICES, and other major networking initiatives in US and EU. Users of any of these networks will be allowed to use BRIDGES infrastructure and services. Other projects may connect physically to BRIDGES at one of the four BRIDGES nodes. If you represent a project that would like to leverage the BRIDGES infrastructure, please contact any of the Principal Investigators at your earliest convenience (see BRIDGES team). Such physical interconnects may take some time, so setting the gears in motion as soon as possible is recommended. The land waves between Paris and Amsterdam, and between New York and Washington are expected to be in service in late fall 2021 (early project-year 2). This will allow research projects to connect to BRIDGES at any of the four BRIDGES nodes. The 4th wave - the northern trans-Atlantic 100Gbps wave between New York (MANLAN) and Amsterdam (NetherLight) is planned for early in project-year 3 (Oct 2022). This scheduling is unfortunately drawn out due to budgetary constraints. However, these waves are being acquired on 10 year IRUs and so will be available for long term. The BRIDGES project is - like everyone - dealing with constraints due to the Covid19 public health restrictions. This has the potential to delay any manner of scheduling - from shipping, to availability of components, to availability of people in various locations. The BRIDGES project will update this status on a monthly a monthly basis in order to present the latest best estimates.