Point Vicente Light

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**Point Vicente Light**
Location:	Palos Verdes, north of Los Angeles harbor, California
Coordinates WGS-84 (GPS)	33.7419° N 118.4106° W
Foundation:	Concrete
Construction:	Reinforced Concrete
Year first lit:	1926
Year first constructed:	1926
Automated:	1973
Tower shape:	Cylindrical
Height:	67 ft
Original lens:	Third order Fresnel lens
Current lens:	Cylindrical
Characteristic:	2 white flashes every 20 s

Point Vicente Lighthouse is a lighthouse in California, United States, in Palos Verdes, north of Los Angeles Harbor, California. It is between Point Loma Lighthouse to the south and Point Conception Lighthouse to the north. The lighthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[edit] History

Point Vicente Lighthouse was built in 1926 on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The light source was dimmed during World War II to avoid aiding the enemy. It was automated in 1971 by the United States Coast Guard. The original third order Fresnel lens still revolves in the lantern room.

The Point Vicente Lighthouse is an important landmark and beacon light relied by thousands of ships and pleasure craft. It provides a means of fixing their position, and ensuring their safe passage up and down the coast. The Point Vicente Light Station has been guiding sailing vessels to and from the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbors since March 1926. It was first operated and maintained by the United States Lighthouse Service for 13 years prior to the service being merged with the U.S. Coast Guard, which was delegated all aid-to-navigation responsibilities in 1939. The lighthouse was manned until 1971 when it was automated by a remote electronic aids-to-navigation monitoring system.

The cylindrical tower is 67 feet tall, and it should be noted that the masonry structure is built on the edge of a 130-foot cliff. This places the center of the lantern 185 feet above the ocean, and because of this elevation, the 1.1 million candlepower-beam can be seen twenty miles away. The most beautiful part in the lighthouse is the classical third-order rotating Fresnel Lens located in the lantern This particular lens was manufactured around 1910 in Paris, France, by Barbier, Bernard and Turenne, the oldest lens making company in the world. This Lighthouse lens is made up of hand-ground prisms held in place by a cast brass frame. The prisms and frame represent an excellent example of the precision achieved by optical scientists and the lens making art in utilizing the known principles and ‘properties of light.