  GlueX at Jefferson Lab aims to study the light meson spectrum with an
emphasis on the search for light hybrid mesons. To this end, a
linearly-polarized $9\,$GeV photon beam impinges on a hydrogen target contained
within a hermetic detector with near-complete neutral and charged particle
coverage. In 2016, the experiment completed its commissioning and subsequently
started to take data in its design configuration. With the size of the data set
so far, GlueX already exceeds previous experiments for polarized
photoproduction in this energy regime. A selection of early results will be
presented, focusing on beam asymmetries for pseudo-scalar and vector mesons.
The potential to make significant contributions to the field of light-meson
spectroscopy is highlighted by the observation of several known meson
resonances. Furthermore, the strategy to map the light meson spectrum with
amplitude analysis tools will be outlined.
