Location | Plymouth, Massachusetts |
---|---|
Coordinates | 42°0′13.3″N70°36′2.2″W / 42.003694°N 70.600611°W |
Tower | |
Constructed | 1768 |
Foundation | Granite |
Construction | Cedar shingle |
Automated | 1986 |
Height | 10 m (33 ft) |
Shape | Octagonal pyramidal |
Markings | White with black lantern and red roof |
Heritage | National Register of Historic Places listed place |
Fog signal | HORN: 2 every 15s |
Light | |
First lit | 1843 (current structure) |
Focal height | 102 feet (31 m) |
Lens | 4th order Fresnel lens (original), 3.9 inches (100 mm) (current) |
Range | white:17 nautical miles (31 km; 20 mi) & red:15 nautical miles (28 km; 17 mi) |
Characteristic | Fl W (3) 10s with R sector |
Plymouth Light Station | |
Nearest city | Duxbury, Massachusetts |
Area | less than one acre |
Built | 1910 |
MPS | Lighthouses of Massachusetts TR (AD) |
NRHP reference No. | 77000655 [1] |
Added to NRHP | March 08, 1977 |
Plymouth Light, also known as Gurnet Light, is a historic lighthouse located on Gurnet Point at the entrance to Plymouth Bay in the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. [2] [3] [4] The light is accessible only by passing through the town of Duxbury, which lies to the north. [5] The tower is located inside the earthworks of Fort Andrew, which existed in the Civil War, War of 1812, and Revolutionary War. [6]
The original lighthouse was built in 1768, burned down and rebuilt in 1801, when the single light became a pair, and rebuilt again in 1842, again as a pair. The light gradually lost importance as Plymouth Harbor silted up and lost most of its traffic. Then, when the Cape Cod Canal opened in 1914, there was a significant increase in vessel traffic past the light. The northeast tower was torn down and the remaining tower upgraded from a sixth order Fresnel lens to one of the fourth order. The fourth order lens is now on display at the Lifesaving Museum in Hull, Massachusetts. The light is the oldest wooden lighthouse in the United States. The light was relocated approximately 140 feet (43 m) to the north in December 1998 because of beach erosion; this placed it within the earthworks of Fort Andrew. [4] The property and the Duxbury Pier Light, in open water 2.3 nmi (4.3 km; 2.6 mi) to the SW are both managed by Project Gurnet and Bug Lights, Inc. [7]
The site is also known for being staffed by America's first female lighthouse keeper. [8]
The actual light is 102 feet (31 m) above Mean High Water. Its white light is visible for 17 nautical miles (31 km; 20 mi); its red sector, which covers Mary Ann Rocks, is visible 15 nautical miles (28 km; 17 mi).
Plymouth Light was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Plymouth Light Station on March 8, 1977. [1]
The Charlevoix South Pier Light Station is located on Lake Michigan at the entrance to Lake Charlevoix in Charlevoix County in the U.S. state of Michigan at the end of the south pier/breakwater of the channel leading to Round Lake in the city of Charlevoix.
The Cape St. George Light is a 72-foot (22 m) high brick lighthouse which had originally stood for 153 years on St. George Island, Florida, until toppling into the Gulf of Mexico October 22, 2005. The pieces of the lighthouse were retrieved, and in April 2008, the light's restoration was completed.
Because it was positioned near the busy shipping lanes of the mid-19th century, a lighthouse was built on Granite Island in 1868 by the U.S. Lighthouse Board and commissioned in 1869.
The Whitefish Point Light is a lighthouse located in Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located on the southeastern shores of Lake Superior, it sits at the edge of Whitefish Point leading to Whitefish Bay. Constructed in 1849, it is the oldest operating lighthouse in the Upper Peninsula. All vessels entering or exiting Lake Superior pass near Whitefish Point. The area is infamously known as the "Graveyard of the Great Lakes" due to the high number of shipwrecks in the area, most famously the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.
Duxbury Pier lighthouse also called Duxbury Light is a lighthouse located in Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts. Duxbury Pier Light was built in 1871 on the north side of the main channel in Plymouth Harbor to mark the dangerous shoal off Saquish Head. The unusual coffeepot-shaped lighthouse is locally known as "Bug Light" or simply "The Bug." It was the first so-called sparkplug lighthouse in the United States. Application was made to list the lighthouse on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.
Brant Point Light is a lighthouse located on Nantucket Island. The station was established in 1746, automated in 1965, and is still in operation. The current tower was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 28, 1987; it has the distinction of being the tenth light on the point, in addition to several range lights. Four of the others burned or blew down, two were condemned, two were unsatisfactory, and the remaining one stands unused.
Charity Island Light is a lighthouse on Big Charity Island in Lake Huron just off the coast of Au Gres, Northern Michigan.
Fort Gratiot Light, the first lighthouse in the state of Michigan, was constructed north of Fort Gratiot in 1825 by Lucius Lyon, who later became one of Michigan's first U.S. Senators.
The Copper Harbor Light is a lighthouse located in the harbor of Copper Harbor, Michigan USA on the Keweenaw Peninsula of Upper Michigan inside Fort Wilkins Historic State Park. It is a Michigan State Historic Site and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Manistee Pierhead lights are a pair of active aids to navigation located on the north and south pier in the harbor of Manistee, Michigan, "Lake Michigan’s Victorian Port City."
The Menominee North Pier lighthouse is located in the harbor of Menominee, Michigan. The station was first lit in 1877. The current structure and its still operational light was lit in 1927, and automated in 1972. It is also sometimes called the "Menominee (Marinette) North Pierhead Light".
The Harbor Beach Lighthouse is a "sparkplug lighthouse" located at the end of the north breakwall entrance to the harbor of refuge on Lake Huron. The breakwall and light were created by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to protect the harbor of Harbor Beach, Michigan, which is the largest man-made freshwater harbor in the world. Harbor Beach is located on the eastern edge of the Thumb of Huron County, in the state of Michigan.
Port Sanilac Light is a United States Coast Guard lighthouse located on Point Sanilac, near Port Sanilac on the eastern side of Michigan's Thumb. It is an automated and active aid to navigation on Lake Huron.
The Marquette Harbor Light is located on Lake Superior in Marquette, Michigan, a part of the Upper Peninsula. It is an active aid to navigation.
The Cape Ann Light Station on Thacher Island, off Cape Ann in Rockport, Massachusetts, is nationally significant as the last light station to be established under colonial rule and the first station in the United States to mark a navigational hazard rather than a harbor entrance. The current pair of lighthouses were built in 1861. They were both equipped with first order Fresnel lenses, which stood approximately 10 feet (3.0 m) high and weighed several tons (tonnes).
Long Island Head Light is an historic lighthouse on Long Island in Boston Harbor, Boston, Massachusetts. The current brick tower is the fourth lighthouse on the island.
Long Point Light Station is a historic lighthouse at the northeast tip of Long Point in Provincetown, Massachusetts. As a navigational aid, it marks the southwest edge of the entrance to Provincetown Harbor. The United States Coast Guard Light List describes it simply as a "white square tower". The light it casts is green, occulting every 4 seconds, and, at a focal height of 35.5 feet (10.8 m) above mean sea level, has a visible range of 8 nautical miles. When the weather affords low-visibility, one can hear the station's fog horn – sounding a single blast for two seconds, and repeating every 15 seconds – as it seems to call out for its nearly-identical closest neighbor, the Wood End Light.
Gurnet Point, also known as The Gurnet, is located at the end of the peninsula at the entrance to Plymouth Bay in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and is a headland and the small private settlement located on it. The Pilgrims who settled Plymouth in 1620 named it Gurnett's Nose for its resemblance to headlands in the English Channel where gurnett fish were plentiful. The Gurnet is the home of Plymouth (Gurnet) Lighthouse as well as Fort Andrew from the Revolutionary War and Civil War. Its access by land is either from Gurnet Road in Duxbury or from the Powder Point Bridge at Duxbury Beach 5 miles to the north by foot or by 4-wheel drive beach buggies, but access is restricted to property owners, residents and their guests, except for once a year on Memorial Day when the lighthouse is open to the public.
Fort Andrew is a former fort built as Gurnet Fort in 1776 for the American Revolutionary War on Gurnet Point in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It became a federal fort and was rebuilt in 1808, and again in 1863 during the Civil War when it received its current name. It is named for John A. Andrew, governor of Massachusetts 1861–1866. In 1863 Fort Standish was built nearby on Saquish Head. After the war, the federal government declared Fort Andrew an inactive military reservation in 1869. The reservation was sold in 1926 and mostly became private property, except for the US Coast Guard light station. A World War II fire control tower was built on the parapet of the old fort. Plymouth lighthouse is also on Gurnet Point, and was moved inside the fort's earthworks to protect it from beach erosion in 1997–1998.
The Detroit River Light, also known as Bar Point Shoal Light, was first established as a lightship in 1875. The current sparkplug lighthouse was built in 1885. It sits in Lake Erie, south of the mouth of the Detroit River, 1.75 nautical miles from land and about 20 nautical miles from the Ambassador Bridge in the Detroit River. It is about 0.4 nautical miles from the border with Canada, and just under 24 nautical miles from Put-in-Bay, Ohio. Its original 4th order Fresnel lens is on loan to the Michigan Maritime Museum.