Framed Art By Martin Barry Of Sea Girt Lighthouse NJ signed by artist

Description: Sea Girt Lighthouse, at Ocean Avenue and Beacon Boulevard in Sea Girt, New Jersey, flashed its first light December 10, 1896. The beacon, which could be seen 15 miles at sea, guided countless mariners in their journeys and contributed to the state’s economic growth and helped make sailing through local waters safer. The lighthouse was built to illuminate a blind spot midway in the 38½-mile stretch between Navesink Lighthouse (Twin Lights) to the north and Barnegat Lighthouse to the south. It also served as a landmark for nearby Sea Girt Inlet and Wreck Pond. By the early 1900s, there were some 40 light stations – lighthouses, lightships and range lights – along New Jersey’s 130-mile coastline. Just over half of them survive. But only 11 of the original lighthouses, including Sea Girt, are open to the public. Lighthouse of Distinction The history of Sea Girt Lighthouse is a rich one, filled with numerous distinctions and achievements. The red brick structure with a tower rising 44 feet was the last live-in lighthouse built on the Atlantic Coast. A live-in lighthouse has the tower integrated into the living quarters. In the more typical design, to be found at Barnegat and Sandy Hook Lighthouses, the tower is separate from the keeper’s house. Sea Girt was equipped with a fourth order Fresnel (pronounced fray-nell) lens, which was 30 inches high. The multi-sided beehive-shape lens had a bulls-eye prism like a big magnifying glass in the middle of each side. A weight dropping down a shaft called the channel caused the lens to revolve on a pedestal. The light source – the flame produced by a wick burning kerosene and later oil – was constant. But mariners saw the illusion of a light blinking on and off. The light was being projected through the first bulls-eye prism, then appeared to go out as it was between prisms, only to flash again as the light went through the next bulls-eye prism and so on as the lens slowly turned. First Radio Beacon Navigation In mid-1921, Sea Girt became the first land-based light station equipped with a radio beacon navigation system, designed to enable mariners to navigate into New York Harbor and through local waters in poor conditions such as heavy fog. A transmitter began to broadcast to ships at sea, sending out radio signals over wires stretched over the lighthouse from two metal towers built on either side of the building. Transmitters were also installed on Ambrose Channel Lightship at the entrance of New York Harbor and on Fire Island Lightship off Long Island’s south shore. Mariners could then locate the positions of their vessels by triangulation – tracking the radio signals of these three installations. In 1928, Sea Girt’s transmitter was shut down and the towers dismantled. The transmitter was transferred to Barnegat Lightship. Ambrose Channel and Fire Island Lightships continued to broadcast. Radio beacon navigation, a forerunner of LORAN (long-range radio navigation), proved effective and was expanded to other locations. Preserving History Since its restoration, the lighthouse is in use some 200 days a year. Where its beacon comforted and guided generations of mariners, the Sea Girt Lighthouse today preserves and proclaims its fascinating history through publications, special programs and guided tours of the building now filled with exhibits of rare photos and artifacts. Tours of the lighthouse are conducted Sundays 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., except holiday weekends, from mid-April through the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Special tours, popular with school groups and scouts, are conducted by prior arrangement year-round. Upon entering the lighthouse, visitors are in the keeper’s office, where an exact replica of the weight that powered the revolving Fresnel lens hangs in the channel. They are guided into the home, through the parlor, and then upstairs and finally into the tower’s lantern room. A growing collection of artifacts covers the U.S. Lighthouse Service and its keepers and their families, the Coast Guard era, the Morro Castle disaster and rescue and Sea Girt of bygone days. Signed by artist.

Price: 125 USD

Location: Perryville, Maryland

End Time: 2025-01-29T05:08:52.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD