Editor’s Staff

East Coast North American Lighthouses

The First in a Series

It is a certainty that there is no paragraph, sentence, phrase or word that hasn’t been used to write about lighthouses. To find a person who doesn’t like lighthouses would be a challenging task. The idea of lighthouses and how they are used is as old as time. One of the seven wonders of our ancient world was the lighthouse at Alexandria, Egypt. Researchers who are lighthouse enthusiasts have learned (and there is no reason to dispute their findings) that there are or have been nearly 22,000 lighthouses around the world. The largest is in Saudi Arabia. The shortest, at approximately nine feet tall, is on Kilbre Island, near Merseyside, England. Seven hundred are or were located in North America, one of which is under the George Washington Bridge where the bridge spans the Hudson River connecting New Jersey to the northwest corner of Manhattan Island, New York City. If you wish, a tour could be in your future. The Little Red Lighthouse is open to the public and you may climb the steps (all 48 of them) to the top – it is a staggering forty feet tall. Lighthouse tours are very popular. Depending on your degree of lighthouse interest you may even want to join a guided (motorcoach) tour. There are travel agents who specialize in lighthouse adventures. However, if you prefer arm-chair travel, we at Postcard History are pleased to present the following, selected list of lighthouses on the east coast of North America. We hope you don’t mind looking at “old” pictures. The stops on this arm-chair tour are

Portland, Maine

York Beach, Maine

Boston, Massachusetts

Noank, Connecticut

Minot Ledge, Massachusetts 

Absecon, New Jersey 

Cape May, New Jersey

Long Beach Island, New Jersey

  Rehoboth, Delaware 

 Saint Simon’s Island, Georgia

*   *   * This tour ends in south Georgia where Saint Simon’s Island lighthouse guides ships into Saint Simon’s Sound to the port of Brunswick, Georgia. In Part Two and beyond, we will visit lighthouses in: Florida, Along the Gulf Coast, the Mississippi River Delta, the Great Lakes, Southern California, the Greater Northwest, Alaska, and Puget Sound. No reservations necessary, but please, continue reading Postcard History Online Magazine to join the tours. We look forward to your visit.