Old Point Loma Light Station
Old Point Loma Light Station (originally: Point Loma Light Station ) is a lighthouse built in 1854 on the Pacific coast of California . The navigation sign located near San Diego was put into operation on November 15, 1855 and served until March 23, 1891 as a navigational aid at the entrance to the Bay of San Diego. In the 1950s - before the Statue of Liberty - the complex was the most popular architectural monument in the United States and is now used as a museum.
Location and importance for shipping
In 1848, what is now the US state of California fell to the United States through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo . In the same year, the California gold rush began , in the course of which the shipping traffic on the Pacific coast increased dramatically. To secure the shipping industry Founded in 1852, decided United States Lighthouse Board the company the construction of eight lighthouses, whose construction Gibbons & Kelly from Baltimore commissioned was.
The Old Point Loma Light Station is located on the southern tip of Point Loma , a peninsula jutting south into the Pacific at the entrance to San Diego Bay. It is located on a sandstone cliff, from which both the shipping traffic along the Pacific coast and the port of San Diego can be seen. This sandstone rock protrudes 128 meters from the sea and was of strategic importance due to its location in the second half of the 19th century.
history
From the start of construction to decommissioning
In 1854 the schooner Vaquero reached Point Loma, laden with construction workers and materials, coming from San Francisco . The work team to build the lighthouse first laid a road that led to the strategically important viewpoint at the top of Point Loma. Men built the lighthouse system from sandstone and bricks from the abandoned Spanish military facility Fort Guijarros , which were mined on site .
The building of the lighthouse was carried out in Cape Cod style , with the tower rising from the center of the house of the lighthouse keeper. The tower was initially designed for the operation of argand burners , particularly brightly burning oil lamps. During construction, however, the Lighthouse Board decided to use the more modern Fresnel lenses in all lighthouses in California instead of the Argand oil lamps . After the arrival of the 1st order Fresnel lens from France, it turned out that it was too large for the tower, which is why it had to be replaced by a 3rd order Fresnel lens.
On November 15, 1855, James Keating, the first lighthouse keeper at Old Point Loma , lit the Fresnel lens for the first time and officially put the system into operation. When the weather was clear, the navigation sign was visible from a distance of 25 miles. It soon turned out, however, that the beacon could not be seen in fog and low cloud cover. For this reason, the lighthouse facility was decommissioned on March 23, 1891. Their task was taken over from now on by New Point Loma Lighthouse , which had been built at the foot of the sandstone cliffs.
After decommissioning
After the Old Point Loma Light Station was decommissioned, the facility initially fell into disrepair. Visitors took items as souvenirs and the windows of the lighthouse house were damaged. In 1913 the lighthouse facility was incorporated into the Cabrillo National Monument . The original plan was to demolish the lighthouse and instead erect a statue in honor of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo , who was the first European to land on the west coast of North America on September 28, 1542. When funding for this plan could not be secured, the lighthouse was preserved.
During the Second World War , the facility was closed to visitors. The lighthouse was painted a green camouflage color and used by the United States Navy as a signal tower. In 1946, Old Point Loma Light Station was transferred to the National Park Service , which restored the lighthouse facility. The statue in honor of Cabrillo was erected next to the lighthouse. For the 100th anniversary of the system, the 4th order Fresnel lens from the Table Bluff Lighthouse from Humboldt County was installed in the lighthouse.
In the 1950s, the Old Point Loma Light Station was very popular with visitors. In 1957, the number of visitors even exceeded that of the Statue of Liberty . With over 953,000 visitors, the complex was the most popular architectural monument in the United States. For this reason, a visitor center was set up and the Cabrillo statue was moved to its current location. In the 1980s, the roof of the lighthouse house was replaced and the upper part of the tower replaced. The Fresnel lens from Table Bluff has been replaced by a 4th order lens from Miles Rock Light , located in front of San Francisco Bay .
In 1974 the lighthouse facility was added to the National Register of Historic Places . Today it serves as a museum.
Views
The Old Point Loma lighthouse was designed in the Cape Cod style , with the tower rising from the center of the lighthouse keeper's house
View of the spiral staircase in the tower of the complex
literature
- Sharlene Nelson / Ted Nelson: Umbrella Guide to California Lighthouses. Seattle, WA 1993, ISBN 0-945397-21-6 , pp. 2-6.
Web links
- The Lighthouses of Point Loma , National Park Service information
- Lighthouse Photos for Point Loma (Old) , US Lighthouse Society
- Lighthouse Architectural Drawings, Point Loma (Old) , US Lighthouse Society
Individual evidence
- ↑ On this and the following cf. Sharlene Nelson / Ted Nelson, Umbrella Guide to California Lighthouses , Seattle 1993, p. 3.
- ↑ Bruce Roberts / Ray Jones, Lighthouses of California , Guilford CT 2005, p. 11.
- ↑ Nelson / Nelson, Umbrella Guide to California Lighthouses , p. 4
- ↑ The Lighthouses of Point Loma , National Park Service information, last accessed April 13, 2019.
- ↑ On this and the following cf. Nelson / Nelson, Umbrella Guide to California Lighthouses , p. 5.
- ↑ On this and the following cf. Nelson / Nelson, Umbrella Guide to California Lighthouses , p. 5.
- ↑ Nelson / Nelson, Umbrella Guide to California Lighthouses , p. 5.
- ^ National Register of Historic Places - Old Point Loma Lighthouse (# 74000350) , last accessed April 14, 2019.
Coordinates: 32 ° 40 ′ 19.2 " N , 117 ° 14 ′ 27.5" W.