Montauk Point Light

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Montauk Point Light

Montauk Point Lighthouse
Location: Montauk Point, Suffolk County, New York
Coordinates
WGS-84 (GPS)		 41°4′15.5″N, 71°51′25.4″W
Year first lit: 1797
Automated: 1987
Deactivated: Active
Foundation: 13 ft (4 m) deep and 9 ft (3 m) thick, Natural, Emplaced, built in 1796
Construction: Sandstone
Tower shape: Octagonal pyramidal
Height: 110.5 ft (33.7 m) structure, 168 ft (51 m) 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 the state.

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

[edit] History

A stylized image of the Montauk Point Lighthouse graces the shields of each of Long Island's state parkways.
A stylized image of the Montauk Point Lighthouse graces the shields of each 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 (33 km)[1].

Pirate Captain Kidd was said to have buried treasure at the foot of the lighthouse around 1699 at two ponds which today are called "Money Ponds."[2]

On August 26, 1839, members of the slave ship Amistad which had been commandeered by its slave cargo in Cuba used the lighthouse as a guide to drop anchor at nearby Culloden Point and come ashore at Montauk (near the modern day train station) to get supplies. The slaves who had let their former captors do the navigating thought the ship was going back to Africa. Members of the naval ship USS Washington (1837) seeing the slaves ashore arrested them and took them to Connecticut The case was to work its way to the U.S. Supreme Court with John Quincy Adams arguing for the Africans. The court was to decide in their favor saying the initial capture of the Africans was illegal and they were freed.

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

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 (90 m) from the edge of the cliff. It is now 100 feet (30 m) 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[3].

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.[4] 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. [5] It remains to be seen whether the seawall plans will be affected by these concerns.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lighthouse facts, accessed May 28, 2006
  2. ^ Pirates and Prohibition - Excerpted From "East Hampton History," by Jeannette Edwards Rattroy - 1953 (republished on longislandgeneology.com - Retrieved January 12, 2007)
  3. ^ "Against All Odds" on Official Montauk Lighthouse website
  4. ^ For Montauk, It’s Lighthouse vs. Surf’s Up!, The New York Times, November 14, 2006
  5. ^ ESSAY; The Coastline Is Retreating. Should the Montauk Lighthouse Stand Its Ground?, The New York Times, November 21, 2006

[edit] External links

[edit] Image Gallery

Looking out from the top of the lighthouse.
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