An optical free-space wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) transport system employing vertical cavity surface emitting lasers and spatial light modulators with 16-quadrature amplitude modulation orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing modulating signals over a 17.5 m free-space link is proposed and demonstrated. With the help of a low-noise amplifier and data comparator, good bit error rate performance is obtained for each optical channel. Such an optical free-space WDM transport system would be attractive for providing services including data and telecommunication services.