Now, if you do not know what lighthouse I am talking about let me just say that this was the lighthouse that I was the most excited to see on our trip. Before we went I just kept talking about how I had to see "Little Red" over and over again. At least Mike puts up with my crazy antics.
This is what welcomed us as we made our way along Fort Washington Park, the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Ok, so maybe not the most beautiful but it is quite glorious. What it lacks in stature, it is only 40 feet tall, it makes up for in looks. In the picture above you can see parts of the bridge that Little Red resides under, the George Washington Bridge. That's right this lighthouse is actually on Manhattan and is one of the few remaining lighthouses in New York City.
Here are some more shots of the lighthouse with its companion, the "Gray Bridge".
Now speaking of the Little Red Lighthouse and the Gray Bridge there was a children's book written in 1942 by Hildegarde H. Swift and illustrated by Lynd Ward entitled "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge". Even though we don't have any children this would make a great addition to all of the lighthouse books that we own.
In order to fully appreciate "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge" you should know some history about this lighthouse. The lighthouse was first used to light the way on Sandy Hook, New Jersey (where there is another lighthouse) starting in 1889. It remained the North Hook Beacon until 1917 and was later moved to Jeffrey's Hook in 1921.
The lighthouse continued to light the way of this stretch of the Hudson River until 1947 when it was shut down by the Coast Guard. Interestingly, its companion is the reason that the lighthouse was no longer needed. In 1931, the George Washington Bridge opened and the brighter lights of this structure rendered the little lighthouse's light unnecessary.
The Coast Guard had even wanted to auction the lighthouse off, but a public outcry in 1951 ceased plans for dismantling the lighthouse. The public outcry was sparked by the book written by Swift and the message that it contained throughout its pages. The lighthouse was named to the National Register of Historic Places (just as one of the lighthouses of yesterday's post was) in 1979. Today the lighthouse stands as a New York City Landmark.
There is an annual festival at Little Red and we just missed out, we were there on Sunday, September 26th! Oh well, I don't think we will mind going again. The lighthouse became reactivated in September 2002 prior to the 10th annual festival.
One final note about this lighthouse, you need to walk across some foot paths in order to get it. We had read that there were some markers leading the way but on our way there we didn't see any. We did have a hard time figuring out how to get there and we almost gave up trying. Good thing we didn't though and on the way back to our car we went a different way and lo and behold we saw the markers!
Now that we've seen Little Red Lighthouse we need to see the "Big Red" lighthouse, which is the popular nickname for the Holland Harbor Lighthouse in Michigan. Unfortunately, there is no "medium red" lighthouse. I guess I will just have to be satisfied with Little Red and Big Red.
Only one more post about our adventures left in this series!
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