Statue of Liberty
Cyberlights Lighthouses - Statue of Liberty  

Statue of Liberty Quick Facts

Year Station Established: 1886

Is the Light operational? No

Year Light First Lit: 1886

Year Deactivated:

Shape: Statue

Tower Height:   ft.

Original Optic:

Present Optic:

Existing Keepers Quarters?



         Cyberlights Lighthouses

Statue of Liberty
New York City, NY

Cyberlights Lighthouses - Statue of Liberty

More Photos
(5 photos, 91KB total download)

Last Visited: October, 2000

History:
Possibly the most recognized symbol of America to generations of people fleeing toward freedom, the Statue of Liberty is none the less the first and undisputedly the greatest lighthouse on the Hudson River. A beacon not just to emigrants and travelers, the Statue as a lighthouse marks the entrance to the inner harbor of New York and warns ships away from the rocky shoals of the western harbor.

Standing 305 feet above the harbor, the great torch of Lady Liberty heralds a welcome to man and ship alike, showing the way to the promise of harbor and safety. Lady Liberty's torch can be seen from well beyond the Verizano Narrows, the mouth of New York harbor, well out to sea.

Long forgotten is the fact that the Statue of Liberty was once a lighthouse. Congress accepted France's monumental gift as work of art and a beacon for New York harbor in 1877. After Liberty's dedication and unveiling in 1886, President Cleveland appointed the US Light-House Board to be its caretaker. Engineers set up a steam dynamo plant on Bedloe's Island and fourteen arc lamps, nine in the torch and five others positioned strategically below at the angles of Fort Wood. Even so, the dimness of the lighting was little help to vessels entering the harbor and efforts were made to increase the illumination. In 1897 , an oil-generating engine was installed to power the lights, but they were still insufficient, and the Liberty Lighthouse closed in 1902. Today, visitors to Liberty Island can learn more about the old Liberty Lighthouse from park rangers.

The Statue of Liberty was declared a national monument by Presidential proclamation on October 15, 1924, the monument boundaries being set at the outer edge of old Fort Wood. The War Department continued to administer the entire island until, in 1933, again by Presidential proclamation, the Statue of Liberty National Monument was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior, the Army retaining the remainder of the island as a military post.

In 1937, another Presidential proclamation declared the Army Post abandoned and jurisdiction of the entire island passed to the National Park Service, Department of the Interior.

While Bedloe's Island, with an area of approximately 12 acres, is located in the Upper Bay of New York Harbor, it is geographically in the territorial waters of New Jersey. The island itself above the mean low-water mark is in New York State, pursuant to an interstate compact entered into by New Jersey and New York in 1834. The State of New Jersey retains the riparian rights to all the submerged land surrounding the statue and extending eastward to the normal interstate boundary line at the middle of the Hudson River Channel.

The actual location of Bedloe's Island is approximately three-eighths land miles offshore from Jersey City, N. J., which is the source of telephone, power, and water services. It is about 1-5/8 land miles from the Battery, at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, New York City. Transportation and mail services are provided by boat from the Battery. At present a privately owned ferry line is operating under contract with the United States Government.

Source: Hudson River Lighthose Coalition

Latitude/Longitude: 40.689294,-74.044776

Nearest Address: 8 Battery Pl, New York, NY

Directions:


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Gary P. Richardson and Anna P. Klein, unless otherwise noted.
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