Little Red Lighthouse
Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Short descriptionScript error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "lighthouse tracking".Expression error: Unexpected < operator. The Little Red Lighthouse, officially Jeffrey's Hook Light, is a small lighthouse located in Fort Washington Park along the Hudson River in Manhattan, New York City, under the George Washington Bridge.[1][2][3] It was made notable by the 1942 children's book The Little Red Lighthouse and The Great Gray Bridge, written by Hildegarde Swift and illustrated by Lynd Ward.
The lighthouse stands on Jeffrey's Hook, a small point of land that supports the base of the eastern pier of the bridge, which connects Washington Heights in Manhattan to Fort Lee, New Jersey.
History
The first attempt to reduce Hudson River traffic accidents at Jeffrey's Hook was a red pole, hung out over the river.[4] A ten candle-power light was added to the pole in 1889 to help alert the increasing river traffic to the spit of land at night. The land around Jeffrey's Hook was acquired by the city in 1896 and later became Fort Washington Park.[4]
The early structure was built as the North Hook Beacon at Sandy Hook, New Jersey. It stood there until 1917, when it became obsolete.[4] In 1921, it was reconstructed at its current location by the United States Lighthouse Board as part of a project to improve Hudson River navigational aids, and originally had a battery-powered lamp and a fog bell. It was operated by a part-time lighthouse keeper.[4]
Construction on the George Washington Bridge, immediately above the lighthouse, began in 1927.[5] When the bridge was completed in 1931,[6] the lighthouse navigational light was considered obsolete.[7] In 1948, the Coast Guard decommissioned the light and put it out with the intention of auctioning it off.[4] This proposed dismantling resulted in a public outcry, largely from children who were fans of the 1942 children's book The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge.[8] This led the Coast Guard to sign its deed to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation on July 23, 1951.[4]
The lighthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as "Jeffrey's Hook Lighthouse" in 1979,[9] and was designated a New York City Landmark in 1991.[4] In 2002, it was relit by the city.[3][10]
Access
Public access to the lighthouse is by the Hudson River Greenway, reachable to the north by a footbridge across the Henry Hudson Parkway at West 182nd Street and Riverside Drive, and to the south by footbridges at West 158th Street or 151st Street.[11]
Tours of the lighthouse are given infrequently. They are arranged by the Parks Department's Urban Park Rangers, especially on the Little Red Lighthouse Festival day in late September and Open House New York day in October. The October Little Red Lighthouse Festivals in 2018 and 2019 were run by the organization Summer on the Hudson[12] in conjunction with the Riverside Park Conservancy[13] and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The festival was not held in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it resumed in 2022.[14]
In other media
The lighthouse is an important setting in the final scenes for the 1948 film Force of Evil, and Jane Campion's neo-noir film In the Cut features the lighthouse as motif and as a filming location.[15]
See also
- List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan above 110th Street
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan above 110th Street
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
- ↑ Template:Cite uscgll
- ↑ Template:Cite uscghist
- ↑ a b Template:Cite rowlett
- ↑ a b c d e f g New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Historic plaque on the lighthouse
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Template:Cite aia5
- ↑ Template:Cite nycland, p.213
- ↑ "Little Red Lighthouse" Template:Webarchive, Washington Heights & Inwood Online, NYC Dept. of Parks & Recreation, August 2001, accessed February 27, 2012
- ↑ Template:Cite report (Template:NationalArchivesNote)
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
External links
Template:Lighthouses of the Hudson River Template:Lighthouses of New York Template:National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan Template:Washington Heights, Manhattan Template:Authority control
- Pages with script errors
- All articles using infobox lighthouse
- 1921 establishments in New York City
- Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan
- Lighthouses completed in 1921
- Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York City
- New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
- Relocated buildings and structures in New York City
- Tourist attractions in Manhattan
- Transportation buildings and structures in Manhattan
- Washington Heights, Manhattan