Montauk Point Lighthouse

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**Montauk Point Lighthouse**
Montauk Point Lighthouse
Location:	Montauk Point, Suffolk County, New York
Coordinates WGS-84 (GPS)	41°4′15.5″N, 71°51′25.4″W
Foundation:	13 ft deep and 9 ft thick, Natural, Emplaced, built in 1796
Construction:	Sandstone
Year first lit:	1797
Deactivated:	Active
Automated:	1987
Tower shape:	Octagonal pyramidal
Height:	110.5 ft structure, 168 ft above water
Original lens:	13 whale oil lamps (1797), Fresnel lens replaced by VRB-25 aerobeacon (current)
Range:	18 nm
Characteristic:	Flashing White 5 seconds. Tower painted white with a broad brown band midway, lantern black. Fog horn (2 s blast every 15 s)

The Montauk Point Lighthouse is in Montauk Point State Park, which is located in the village of Montauk at the eastern tip of Long Island in Suffolk County, New York. Montauk Point is the easternmost extremity of the South Fork of Long Island, and also of New York State.

It is listed as Montauk Point Light, number 660, in the USCG light lists.

[edit] History

An image of the Montauk Point Lighthouse graces the highway signs for all of Long Island's state parkways.

Construction on the lighthouse was authorized by the Second United States Congress, under President George Washington in 1792. Construction began on June 7, 1796, and was completed on November 5, 1796. The lighthouse and adjacent Camp Hero were heavily fortified with huge guns during World War I and World War II. Those gun emplacements and concrete observation bunkers (which are also at nearby Shadmoor State Park) are still visible.

It was the first lighthouse in New York State, and is the fourth-oldest active lighthouse in the United States. The tower is 110' 6" high. The current light, equivalent to 2,500,000 candle power, flashes every 5 seconds and can be seen a distance of 18 nautical miles^[1].

The tower was originally all white. Its single brown stripe was added in 1900.

During World War II, a concrete fire / submarine observation tower was built just to the east of the tower. If an enemy ship was spotted, the guns at adjoining Fort Hero were to be called into action. The observation tower still remains.

The United States Coast Guard considered tearing down the lighthouse in 1967 and replacing it with a steel tower further from the edge of the bluff. When the tower was built on Turtle Hill it was 300 feet from the edge of the cliff. It is now 100 feet away from the edge. After World War II the United States Army Corps of Engineers built a seawall at its base, but the erosion continued. In the wake of protests over the announced dismantling of the tower, Giorgina Reid a textile designer who had saved her Rocky Point, New York cottage from collapse by building a simple set of terraces in the gullies of the bluff, proposed to do the same at Montauk. Reid's concept Reed-Trench Terracing called for building the terrace platforms made of various beach debris -- notably reeds. The practice (along with further strengthening of the rocks at the bluff toe) has appeared to have stemmed the erosion. She patented the process and wrote an article about it titled How to Hold up a Bank^[2].

It was reported in November 2006 that the United States Army Corps of Engineers is planning to build a seawall to solve the continuing erosion problem. This plan has been opposed by a local surfing group which contends that a seawall would ruin the nearby world-renowned surf break, and propose moving the lighthouse back from the shore, as was done with the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.^[3] Complicating such a move is the terrain that would require the lighthouse to be moved down one hill and then up another hill. There are also environmental concerns about whether reducing the erosion at Montauk would increase erosion at other Long Island beaches. ^[4] It remains to be seen whether the seawall plans will be affected by these concerns.