West Point Lighthouse
by Joan Carroll
Title
West Point Lighthouse
Artist
Joan Carroll
Medium
Photograph - Digital Photograph
Description
Sunrise is early in the summer in the Pacific Northwest so it was hard to get to the West Point Lighthouse at sunrise, but I managed it soon after. When you reach the parking lot nearest the lighthouse, there is a sign saying you need a parking permit and to pay at the park office and towing is enforced 24 h a day. Hmmm.....what to do what to do? I didn't see the park office and it was well before 7 am. Should I drive back to find it? I'll let you guess what I did. It seemed a pretty remote place early in the day on a weekday, and imagine my surprise to see someone else (visible in the picture on the far right) also out taking pictures! The West Point Light, also known as the Discovery Park Lighthouse, is a 23-foot-high lighthouse on Seattle, Washington's West Point which juts into Puget Sound and marks the northern extent of Elliott Bay. West Point Lighthouse opened on November 15, 1881, and featured a fourth-order Fresnel lens, it was the first manned light station on Puget Sound and cost $25,000 to build ($610 thousand in today dollars). It was illuminated with a kerosene lamp for its first 44 years, until it was attached to Seattle's electric grid in 1926. The lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. It became automated in 1985, the last station in Washington to do so. In late 2002, West Point Lighthouse was declared surplus by the federal government under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. The City of Seattle was awarded ownership of the lighthouse in 2004, and obtained the deed to the property in 2006. Between September 2009 and the following June, lead paint was stripped from the lighthouse, and its exterior was restored. Included in the transfer of the property was the station's original 4th order Fresnel Lens. Upon signing over of the deed, the Coast Guard extinguished the original lighting system and replaced it with a modern Vega Rotating Beacon (VRB-25). Today the light retains its original characteristic of alternating red and white flash every five seconds.
FEATURED PHOTO, The Road to Self Promotion group, 8/23/14
FEATURED PHOTO, Artists Best Five Artwork Group ABFA Group, 8/22/14
FEATURED PHOTO, 500 Views -1 Image a Day group, 7/9/14
FEATURED PHOTO, Pleasing the Eye group, 7/1/14
Uploaded
July 1st, 2014
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Viewed 5,259 Times - Last Visitor from Leesburg, VA on 04/15/2024 at 9:22 PM
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