Navesink Twin Lights

Even if your not a lighthouse fan, this one will surely catch your eye. At one of the highest points on the East Coast stands, not one, but two lights overlooking Sandy Hook Bay. This huge lighthouse stretches over 230 feet vertically with the towers standing 40 feet into the sky. It's vantage point allows a perfect view of New York City and numerous surrounding towns in New Jersey.
The picture to the right is of the backside of the north tower.










Navesink Twin Lights are 200 feet above sea level. A lighthouse had existed their since 1828, but the current set of lights were constructed during 1862. The two nonidentical lights are about 228 feet apart The towers are linked together by a keepers place and first assistant quarters in the middle of the two towers. The wings were for the second, and third assistants quarters, along with workshops and storage rooms. Unlike many lighthouses in America this one has a good amount of living space. The northern tower is an octagonal shape and the southern one is square. Brownstone from the area was used for construction of this castle-like building. Fresnel lens were put in place in the towers and were capable of producing 8,000 candlepower, which made them the most powerful lights in America at the time of completion in 1862. To the left is the north tower front view.




After a few decades some guys were like, "Hey, the French lights are so much better and stuff." So the Americans would have none of that, and they ordered an electric arc lamp. A wooden house was built on-site to host a generator for electricity to support the new light. This huge seven ton lens was activated in the south tower on June 20, 1892 with a blinding 25,000,000 candlepower. Yet again claiming the thrown of most powerful lighthouse in the country and first to use electricity. The light on the revolving lens went off every 5 seconds and could be seen 22 miles away. Supposedly their were reports of the light reflecting off of clouds seen up to 75 miles away. Either way the townsfolk weren't very happy with this ridiculous power and showed up with torches and pitchforks. Luckily for the keepers not many of them were radical Christians who would probably had proclaimed this was the work of some devil. They let the keepers live to see another day and put up some boards around the light on the land side. Funny thing though, the keepers also had to get some awesome looking Oakleys to work on the light because it was that damn powerful. The picture up top is the backside of the living quarters, south tower. On the right side of the picture is the electrical generator station.




Eventually the power of south would outshine the north and cause it to shut down. With a few other things happening and the townspeople getting really cheap, the candlepower was then downgraded to 710,000 candlepower because they didn't update their generator. Finally with commercial electricity available the light was back to only a pointless 9,000,000 candlepower in 1924. It would be reduced yet again for World War II to prevent those Nazis from sneaking around and spying on us at night. Front view of the south tower







Due to it's height on the East Coast, Guglielmo Marconi used the front lawn to erect a massive antenna for sending the first commercial wireless telegraphs. In 1917 the first radio beacon was placed near the lighthouse, and just before World War II the first radar experiments were conducted right next to the north tower. Ironically enough with all these new innovations taking place at the location of the lighthouse, it become useless in 1949 and was shut down completely in 1951.
North tower window.





The most interesting thing about the lighthouse is it's unique structure. It's two lights that extend the building 228 feet make it quite a luxurious lighthouse. Brownstone used for construction from the surrounding area also give it a strong castle like feel. It's vantage point allows visitors to see New York City on a clear day and play imaginary games in their heads similar to Sim City. It's a sight to see and can't really be explained with words. It's history is rich but the architecture of the building is one-of-a-kind.
View from the front lawn on a smoggy day. The bridge connects New York and Staten Island. You can also see two other lighthouses. The tall one is Sandy Hook and the other is to the right of it.

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