Leading lights are a pair of light beacons used in navigation to indicate a safe passage for vessels entering a shallow or dangerous channel; they may also be used for position fixing. At night, the lights are a form of leading line that can be used for safe navigation. The beacons consist of two lights that are separated in distance and elevation, so that when they are aligned, with one above the other, they provide a bearing. Range lights are often illuminated day and night.
Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeastern United States.
Bakers Island is a small, private residential island in Massachusetts Bay, in Salem, Massachusetts. It is located southeast of Great Misery Island & Little Misery Island, northeast of North Gooseberry Island and South Gooseberry Island, and far northeast of Children's Island. It is the outermost island on the main shipping channel into Salem Harbor. Bakers Island Light, located on the island's northern side, is used for navigation.
Spectacle Island is a 114-acre island in Boston Harbor, 4 miles (6.4 km) offshore of downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It is part of the city of Boston. The island has a varied history, and today is a public park with a marina, visitor center, cafe, lifeguarded swimming beach, and five miles of walking trails, forming part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. It is served all year by ferries from Boston, and on weekends and summer weekdays by a shuttle boat to and from nearby islands.
Lovells Island, or Lovell's Island, is a 62-acre (250,000 m2) island in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, in Massachusetts. The island is across The Narrows from Georges Island and some 7 miles (11 km) offshore of downtown Boston. It is named after Captain William Lovell, who was an early settler of nearby Dorchester. The island is known as the site of several shipwrecks, including the 74-gun French warship Magnifique in 1782.
St. Clair Flats Front and Rear Range Light are two lighthouse structures situated off the southeastern tip of Harsens Island at Lake St. Clair.
The Grassy Island Range Lights were a pair of lighthouses which were originally established to guide traffic through the channel into Green Bay harbor. They were deactivated and moved to shore as part of a channel-widening project.
Palmer Island Light Station is a historic lighthouse in New Bedford Harbor in New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA. The lighthouse was built in 1849 out of stone rubble. It was discontinued when the harbor's hurricane barrier was built in the early 1960s, as its location immediately north of the barrier was no longer an outlying danger and there are lights on either side of the barrier opening.
The Sullivan's Island Range Lights were range lights on the southern end of Sullivan's Island in Charleston County, South Carolina. The light station was first established in 1848 and was destroyed in 1861 during the Civil War. It was rebuilt after the war and the lights were in existence at least as late as 1901. Neither of the range lights still remains today.
The Tinicum Island Rear Range Light is a lighthouse located in the Billingsport section of Paulsboro, Gloucester County, New Jersey, United States, the rear of a pair of range lights marking a section of the channel in the Delaware River south of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The lighthouse, surrounded by ball fields next to the new marine terminal for the Port of Paulsboro, is still active for navigation on the Delaware River. It works in conjunction with the Tinicum Front Range Light, known as the Billingsport Front Light, situated on the banks of the Delaware River at the front of Fort Billings Park next to the Paulsboro Refinery.
The Little Channel Range Lights were a set of range lights on Prince Edward Island, Canada. They were built in 1873, and deactivated in 1969; only the rear tower has survived.
The Doubling Point Range Lights are a pair of range lights on the Kennebec River, in Arrowsic, Maine. Built in 1898 as part of a major improvement on navigational aids on the river, they are the only surviving pair of range lights in the state. They were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Kennebec River Light Station on January 21, 1988.
The Nantucket Harbor Range Lights are range lights that were built in 1908 to guide vessels through the narrow channel to Nantucket Harbor. They replaced an older arrangement involving the Nantucket Beacon and the Brant Point Light, which became unusable when the latter was replaced with a new tower.
The Nantucket Cliff Lights, also known as the Nantucket Cliff Range Lights were a set of range lights on Nantucket. Over the years, there were several sets of range lights to lead ships into Nantucket Harbor. The first were built in 1838. The second, a pair of conical white towers which still exist-owned by the Gilbreth family of "Cheaper by the Dozen" Fame-although not on the same site, were discontinued in 1912. The Gilbreth Family purchased the two latter range lights in 1921.
The Spectacle Island Range Lights were a pair of range lights on Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor. They were established in 1897 and discontinued in 1913 after changes in the entrance channels to the harbor made them obsolete.
The Ipswich Range Lights are a pair of range lights on Crane Beach in Ipswich, Massachusetts. They have a long and varied story. They were first built as two brick towers, 542 feet (165 m) apart on a more or less east–west line in 1838. The movement of the sands led to shifting of the towers and by 1881 the rear tower, Ipswich Rear Range Light, was badly cracked. It was replaced by a cast-iron tower, while by 1867 the front light, Ipswich Front Range Light, had been replaced by a movable wood structure that could be shifted as the channel shifted. The front light was discontinued in 1932 and the rear light was replaced in 1938 with a skeleton tower. It, or its replacement, is still in service today. The 1881 cast-iron rear tower was loaded on a barge and shipped to Edgartown, Massachusetts, where it replaced the Edgartown Harbor Light that had been destroyed in the Hurricane of 1938.
The Hyannis Rear Range Light, also known as the Hyannis Harbor Light, was a lighthouse and, for part of its life, one of a pair of range lights adjacent to Hyannis Harbor. The Range Rear tower was built in 1849 and equipped with a 5th order Fresnel lens in 1856. In 1863 the original birdcage lantern was replaced with a new cast iron one. In 1885, a front range light was added on the Old Colony Railroad Wharf, and the two lights together served to leading vessels to the wharf. The 20 foot Range Rear tower is shorter than most lighthouses, as its purpose was just to guide ships to the wharf. In the early 1800s, the railroad extended from its current terminus at the Hyannis Transportation Center, down what is now Old Colony Road to Harbor Road, where it ended in the 300 foot wharf that was a busy area for shipping coal, lumber, grain and fish.
The Broad Sound Channel Inner Range Lights were a pair of lighthouses in Boston Harbor. They were removed around 1950 when the channel they helped to mark was superseded by a parallel channel to the north.
