Lighthouse of the Week, Aug. 27 - Sep. 2, 2017: Fire Island, New York

My path to this lighthouse was slightly unusual - I looked for a picture of a blue-colored lighthouse.  It does not appear that there are any.  There is, however, a lighthouse in Tierra del Fuego painted in spiral blue and yellow stripes, which will probably be the lighthouse of the week next week.  But this week, when I searched for "blue lighthouse", I found a picture of the Fire Island lighthouse on Long Island in New York, and it looked like it was painted white and navy blue.

It isn't.  It's black and white.

But still, Fire Island was interesting enough to be this week's featured lighthouse.  It has a lot of history, and was considered one of the more important lighthouses in the nation in much earlier times.

First, a couple of Web sites:

Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society

Fire Island Lighthouse (Lighthouse Friends)

Three excerpts from the latter:

"Built about 200 yards northeast of the first one, the second Fire Island Lighthouse stands 168 feet tall, more than double the height of its predecessor. The stone from the original lighthouse was used to construct the terrace on which the new lighthouse and dwelling were built. The base of the second tower spreads outward for increased stability, and inside, a 192-step, spiral staircase leads to the watchroom."

AND

"The Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board for 1894 contains the following on Fire Island Lighthouse: “This is the most important light for transatlantic steamers bound for New York. It is generally the first one they make and from which they lay their course.” Due to this importance, the board decided to purchase for use at Fire Island a giant bivalve lens with a nine-foot diameter that the French manufacturer Henry Lepaute had displayed at the 1893 World Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. As the lens was to be fitted with an electric arc light, a coal-fired steam power plant was constructed 200 feet west of the lighthouse in 1896."

AND

"For years, the first-order Fresnel lens used in Fire Island Lighthouse from 1858 to 1933 had been exhibited at the Franklin Institute, a museum in Philadelphia. In 2000, the lens was taken off display and relocated to a warehouse, prompting calls to return the lens to Fire Island. On March 27, 2007, the 9,000-pound, sixteen-foot-tall lens arrived at Fire Island National Seashore in the form of 900 pieces packed inside twenty-one crates. With funding secured, construction of a building to house the lens was completed, and the lens went on display in July 2011."

Having said all that, now you'll understand the pictures better.

The lens

And if you want to know where it is, click right here.