Fayerweather Island

Coordinates: 41°8′35″N 73°12′58″W / 41.14306°N 73.21611°W / 41.14306; -73.21611 Fayerweather Island is a 7 1/2-acre landmass located in Long Island Sound, south of Seaside Park and is a part the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The island contains a resurgent coastal forest comprised primarily of white oak (Quercus alba) and Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) growth. The island is home to the 1823 Black Rock Harbor Light at the mouth of Black Rock Harbor.^[1]

Physical description

1807: Island purchased from David Fayerweather by the US Government.^[4]
1823: Present lighthouse built, with four-foot-thick rubble walls faced with brownstone ashlar, to replace an earlier wooden structure that had washed away in a hurricane. A keeper's house was constructed at the same time.
1837-38: A granite seawall--called "the fortification"--was constructed to help maintain the integrity of the island and lighthouse station. It was extended across what had become little more than a sandbar to connect with a larger portion of Fayerweather Island in 1849.^[5]
1844: Lantern of lighthouse reconstructed
1873: Keeper's house rebuilt, with self-sufficient cistern water supply.
1894: Dredging project completed, providing 6-foot-deep (1.8 m) channel around the island into the harbor at low tide. Seawall repaired & improved.^[5]
1911: Island acquired by the city of Bridgeport. Reconstruction of the seawall is begun that would connect the island to the western end of Seaside Park.^[6]
1919: New seawall and roadway completed that connected the upper portion of Fayerweather Island (now the western end of the park mainland) to the older portiions of Seaside Park.
1933: Lighthouse decommissioned.
1977: Keeper's house destroyed by fire.
1986: A state-record 17 lb 14 oz weakfish was caught on the island.^[7]