sandy hook lighthouse

We visited this lighthouse during the lighthouse challenge. It is quite a long climb up the spiral steps to the top. There is a gift shop inside and a small exhibit on the history of the area. It is surrounded by a coast guard community that has since closed down but is still interesting to imagine it in its heyday. They were restoring it, but then Hurricane Sandy came and inflicted further damage.

A piece of history right in SandyHook, great views, great lighthouse and free to tour with a ranger. Beautiful grounds and a nice thing to do with family

We traveled the New Jersey coast in August & made sure we visited Sandy Hook Lighthouse, situated about 1½ miles south of the tip of Sandy Hook, NJ, which is the oldest working lighthouse in the United States. It is the ONLY remaining structure (of the 12) built before the American Revolution. Interestingly, even though it was built only about 500 feet from the northern bayshore at the entrance to New York Harbor, over the last 150 years drifting sand has filled the harbor inlet space & the lighthouse now sits more than a mile south of the shore. The lighthouse was originally called the New York Lighthouse and it was used as a base by the British military for raids on the Americans during the Revolution. It survived many attempts by Patriots to destroy the base. The tower is open for climbing and the keeper’s building has many educational exhibits. We found our visit to the Sandy Hook area interesting because of the numerous historical attractions & ability to view (from a high viewing stand) the Manhatten skyline & Verazzano Narrows Bridge across the bay.

The Sandy Hook Lighthouse, located not far from the tip of Sandy Hook, New Jersey, is the oldest working lighthouse in USA designed and built in 1764. It is a beautiful and frequently photographed structure celebrating its 250th anniversary. You can climb the lighthouse to the top to see the interesting view and the Fresnel lens. One can also visit the Keepers Headquarters which houses the museum. The park rangers are very knowledgeable and willing to help, offering a lot of information. We visited during the annual event in October called the lighthouse challenge of New Jersey. Normally the tours are allowed to climb the lighthouse until 4:30 PM but on that special weekend they extended the hours and in spite of the long line and crowds we were able to visit it.