Wow.
Hi, everyone.
I'm Emily and I'm Vince.
And this is the Lighthouse
Lowdown.
I forgot the button.
We've made it more complicated for
ourselves having to physically
press the button when originally
I would just drop the audio
in.
But I think it's more fun,
easier for me later.
And we can sing during it now.
Yeah. Now you can instead
of getting a peaceful
moment from us talking,
instead you get maybe
we should just remove it entirely
and just have us sing the whole
thing.
Not this time.
OK, so our history
today, I'm excited about it's
going to be types of Fresnel
lenses.
Very good.
Which we discussed me doing
in one of the earlier podcasts,
one of the most recent ones.
And it's very visual.
So if you're listening
to the podcast and you want to see
what I'm talking about because
lenses are super cool and I think
they're really pretty and they're
all very different, which is what
I'm going to be covering today.
Then head over and watch the video
because that'll be you
can just go over, watch the video
as I'm talking about the history
buoy and then come back to
listen to the podcast.
But YouTube has a video,
the Lighthouse Lowdown YouTube
channel.
Yeah.
And then not the video, but images
are on Instagram.
And you can watch the video.
You don't have to go to YouTube.
You can just go to our website.
That has a little that's right.
The Lighthouse Lowdown dot com.
So.
But yes.
But yeah, so that's I'm going to
be doing that today.
And I think you'd benefit
greatly from seeing the pictures
because Vince will be seeing here
seeing them all up on the screen.
So. Right.
Obviously, the point of a
Fresnel lens is to focus as
much of a light source as possible
in a direction
that could be if it's a fixed light,
it's all directions or
a singular direction, which is how
you get the beam of a lighthouse
tower is it's focused.
And that's what the point of a
Fresnel lenses and actually a lens
now that they're, you
know, originally we had, you know,
reflectors and just like
it's like mirrored surfaces
that kind of did that same
job. And it was like 40
percent of the light source was
captured and redirected.
But with a Fresnel lens, up
to 98 percent of a light
is captured by the prisms
and redirected.
So that's why it's so powerful.
Yeah. I'll show you.
So this is basically just a cross
section of a Fresnel lens.
So you can see what the prisms
looks like.
The prisms closest to the
bullseye or the middle section.
It varies.
And I'll show you a picture in a
second.
But the middle part doesn't
have to redirect the light as
much because it's right in front
of where the light is coming
from.
And so they're shaped differently
than the prisms that are further
up or down from the light
source in the Fresnel lens,
because the Fresnel lens just goes
on top of the light source.
It's like you just put it over
the top of a bulb or
you know, early on it was just
candles or oil
lamps or something like that.
And so the prisms
on the top and bottom basically
have to work harder to redirect
light into the direction that you
want it to go in the middle ones.
So they're shaped differently.
So closer to the very
middle of the Fresnel lens,
they're called dioptric prisms
and further up are catadioptric.
Basically just the ones further
up or down have to
bend the light at a steeper
angle than ones that are closer
to the middle of the lens,
which is why they're shaped
different.
Yeah.
So they're different shape,
which is essentially angling
the light out in a linear fashion
straight out from the Fresnel
lens.
And then they're also different
sizes.
So it looks like the ones that are
dioptric.
So they're further away from the
light source or larger,
at least in this
in this diagram.
Yeah, I think they usually are.
It's kind of like dioptric is half
of what a catadioptric prism is.
And the picture that I'm showing
is simplified.
But if you have like
I'm about to talk about it in a
second, but there are different
sizes of Fresnel lenses,
which we talk about all the time.
Yeah.
First order, fourth or eighth
order.
And that just means how many
prisms there are.
And it's obviously smaller in
size.
So if you have an eighth order,
you'll have like four prisms
total around the sides.
Yeah.
And if you have first order,
it's, I don't know,
a hundred or something.
You know, it's just yeah.
It's basically that
the light on the inside
could be the same.
But because the Fresnel lens
is so much bigger with so many
prisms, it's capturing every
little scrap of light
that is coming out from that
light source and redirecting it.
So.
It's cool.
So this I'm showing a chart
from the US LHS page,
which tells you what
sizes there are and how many
there were in the US,
what the cost is,
what their size is.
So it kind of just breaks it all
down.
I'm not going to talk about all
of this, but basically you're
the largest Fresnel lens you
have is hyper radial and it
goes all the way down to eighth
order, which is just a couple
inches in height and diameter.
And then the hyper radial is
12 over 12 feet tall.
And I'll have a picture of that
too.
But the I'm looking at the cost
over here.
Yeah.
OK, those are in nineteen
hundred dollars.
So like so nowadays
a hyper radial lens in nineteen
hundred was twenty seven
thousand dollars.
And today that amounts to nearly
a million dollars.
That is nuts.
I know.
So I got to pick up.
I like charts.
Oh, there's also I like charts.
I like chart number of them
of each size in the US.
And there's a nineteen hundred
and nineteen twenty two in the
nineteen forty five.
There's one shown for that
hyper radial.
Is that the same one we talk
about it?
All right.
You I'll tell you about it.
I don't need to cut you off.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah.
And another thing on this chart,
a couple of these sizes have a
little asterisk next to it.
And that just means that the
size of lens it was developed
after Fresnel originally
designed the lens.
So it's like somebody else
developed the size.
The size.
Yeah.
And so that that would be
hyper radial and so radial.
I there's none in the US
and there's only been two ever
built, so I didn't look too
deep into that.
But maybe one of these days I'll
try and find one of the
lighthouses that had a lens like
that because it's just a
different size.
I think it's not probably not
anything outrageous, but there's
also three and a half order,
which I thought was funny.
And it must have just been
because third order is twice the
size of a fourth order in radius.
And so they were probably like,
why don't we have something
that's in between this and made
it a three and a half order.
And that's actually going to
show up in our podcast today.
OK.
Seventh order and eighth order
were not in the US.
I guess you can see it on the
screen.
They never that was a lot more
of a Europe thing to have.
I didn't realize that smaller
lenses like that.
Do you know why?
It's mostly I think it's just
because we defaulted often to a
fourth order lens.
When we would build a
lighthouse, it wouldn't be on a
river or anything.
I don't know if we have any
lighthouses on a river.
But in Europe, they did.
Yeah, you know, yeah, just a lot
more little islands and stuff.
So smaller range.
Yeah.
And buoys a lot had eighth
order lenses on them.
So just little lights.
I will start now with talking
about flash patterns, you know,
light characteristics.
We've done a podcast, was it
history, but yeah, we have.
Yeah.
So we've covered it before, but
the light characteristic depends
on what your frontal lens looks
like.
And so every time you have like
group occulting or you have a
flashing light or you have a
fixed light, it's because the
frontal lens looks different.
And that's why you have a
different flash pattern today.
Not so much because another
electric focus.
Yeah, exactly.
But originally it was because of
the Fresnel lenses.
So I have pictures up if anyone
wants to go the lighthouse
lowdown.com.
I'll have video.
You can go ahead and see what
the lens look like.
But a lot of these pictures came
from the US LHS as well.
They did a whole section on this.
So first one that I have up is a
fixed lens.
And so this is basically a
Fresnel lens that is not moving.
And so you don't have a focused
singular beam.
It's basically the light
protrudes out from every
direction of the Fresnel lens.
So you can't have a bullseye.
You have to have light available
from all angle.
If you're sailing around the
lighthouse, it should never be a
flash.
There should never be any
discontinuation of the light
that you're seeing.
So the fixed lens has like this
donut around the middle instead
of being broken up into bullseyes.
It's just a bubble.
It's like like what is it called
when you are swimming and you
have a tube?
I can't think of it at the moment.
It's a donut tube.
Like the like tire tubes that
people used to go on the lazy
river.
Exactly.
That's what it reminds me of.
But it's just like slightly
convex.
Convex.
Yes.
OK.
I think.
From every side of that, you have
the prisms that we're talking
about.
It's fun because in these pictures
you can see the shape of them is
that diopteric is just a
think of the triangle that's
straight on one side and then has
to right triangle.
Isometric.
Oh, man, we're really
challenging ourselves.
I could just move on and not say
anything.
Well, I wanted to say it's
interesting.
I don't mean to cut you off.
No, no.
We talked about the diagram
earlier.
It was a cross section cut of a
Fresnel lens.
And I never realized that what
the attempt is.
You have your light source in the
center.
Yeah.
And the attempt is to redirect
all of the light from the light
source straight out
horizontally from all points on
the piece of glass that is the
Fresnel lens.
I always thought of it as
focusing the light to the center
point of the Fresnel lens.
Oh, yeah.
Like as close as you get to a
laser beam, to a direct beam.
But really, so the actual beam
height is several feet tall.
What is this, like 12 feet tall?
Rather than, you know, focus to
be as small as it can be.
It's all of the light on a stack
of light, if that makes any
sense.
A column is going out rather
than a point.
And just something else I was
going to say is that this first
picture, I believe, is a third
order lens.
And the second picture is a
first order.
So you can just see the
difference in the amount of
prisms.
They're all the same size.
It's just that, you know, that
one's so much bigger with so
many more that they look small.
I can't believe the work that
must be involved in getting
these polished.
I know.
Gosh, I know.
It's not sometimes.
It's often.
Next one that I'm showing is a
flashing lens.
So you have your bull's eyes and
all of them are curved.
And obviously this is going to
be like a lot more expensive
over process to make than just
the straight ones.
Yeah.
Yeah, this is just a flashing
lens.
So each time the this Fresnel
lens, this is also first order,
as you can tell by the sheer
size of it, it rotates and it
could be on clockwork mechanism
or the used beds of mercury or
whatever, which has been showing
up a lot in the lighthouses that
I've been looking at the beds of
mercury.
It's not.
I remember we were talking to
somebody who said that it
wasn't common.
And I was like, I don't know.
I've just been hearing a lot.
Yeah, I've seen those pop up a
lot.
So I think we were talking
specifically about maybe I'll
learn some more things.
But Fred Stonehouse, isn't it?
Yeah.
Author's name.
He had him on the podcast.
We were talking about standard
rock on Lake Superior.
I think we were talking mostly
about Lake Superior
Lighthouses.
I think his comment was
suggesting that there are not
mercury beds used on those
lighthouses and maybe.
I don't know, maybe that's local
or maybe there's hit or miss.
That would make sense just
because they're smaller lenses,
just like usually fourth order
on lakes and stuff.
Yeah.
And so maybe work would be fine.
Yeah.
You wouldn't you wouldn't have
to work quite so hard in order
to make it rotate where the
mercury bed was basically so
that it could smoothly rotate
without putting so much pressure
on or having a huge clockwork
come off the grease.
Yeah, exactly.
So, yeah, it's basically.
Oh, cool.
I'm sorry.
I'm pointing at the screen now,
too, without saying anything.
There's on the wall in this
image we're looking at, there's
a focus light.
I don't know if it's
just coming through or.
I'm thinking there's probably
a light on the inside that's
showing, but it's showing up
as a big bullseye on the wall.
Yeah.
And then stretched out
many feet tall.
So cool.
Cool.
Yeah.
So basically this rotates
and the flashes that you see
from the Fresnel lens are
the light focusing through
this bullseye.
So in between them,
you would still see the light,
but it's focused whenever you
hit that bullseye lens.
So you'd be able to see that
there's it's not like
the flashing lens like this.
It's not like you would see no
light at all at the top
of the lighthouse.
And then all of a sudden,
there's this brilliant
flash of light.
It's like there's light up there
and then a focused beam.
And the focus beams come out
perpendicular from the face
of each of these flat faces.
Yeah.
So what's the material
in between that joins them?
You told me this time ago.
Brass.
So brass joins the panels
of glass together.
Right. Because I'm not sure.
I don't know why either.
There's got to be some reason.
I know brass is expensive.
Maybe there's some property.
We haven't got to be.
Yeah, because I'm thinking
for lenses have got to get
really hot, don't they?
Or maybe it does.
I feel like but then any focused
light is really hot.
Yeah.
But I also read that light
doesn't lose energy
moving through a prism.
So would it get hot?
Technically, I don't think so.
But if there are any media.
Well, we talked about
lighthouse keepers have cleaned.
Yeah, there's no way.
Religiously cleaned it, probably.
If there's any media
that would that would hinder it,
it would make it darker,
but also pick up heat.
Yeah. But then they would also
probably clean it
during the day when it's not on.
Yeah.
Because a lot of Fresnel lenses,
you have to open them
to get to the light.
There's like a panel that opens
or like I'm about to show
a clamshell or bivalve.
And those just open
just two sides like a like a book.
Cool.
OK, so this is a bivalve
or a clamshell lens.
So if we ever talk about bivalve
or clamshell, the same thing.
It basically is just two
very large bullseyes
across from each other.
And the light goes in the middle.
So you'd have two flashes
when it does, when it finishes
an entire rotation.
And that's it.
So this first picture is
from the lighthouse
that we're talking about today.
Absolutely gorgeous.
That's a three and a half order.
An awesome picture.
And that was in 1989.
So it's kind of fantastic.
Very, very good photo.
But yeah, so that just opens
those are beautiful from the side.
It's like there's a hinge on one side.
I mean, just like
crack it open like a book
to get to the.
Yeah.
If you more often like there
a long time ago when there was
flame on the inside,
you'd have to open it often
to light it or clean it
or refill the oil
or something like that.
So these were very easy
to get access to,
but it would require a lot of weight
on this hinge.
And so, you know,
the hardware is going
to be really impressive.
Yeah, exactly.
Because it can't imagine
it fails in your
very expensive, very important.
Yeah.
And then the lights down
for a long time.
That's a no go.
A lot of pressure under pressure.
Well, thank you.
And both of them have this bar
down the middle of the bulls eye.
Is that a structural?
It's got to be.
Yeah, like just because
there's so much weight.
You don't have multiple supports
like the other lenses.
These is just like
I feel like a lot of pressure
would be on this bulls eye lens.
And eventually they had to
add a little support in there.
Technically, the very best shape
of any structure to
distribute stress is a circle
or well, technically a sphere.
But a circle is a really good way
a band, if you will,
to distribute stress
when designing something.
So that would allow them to.
I think they knew that at this time.
Yeah, that way.
Next one I'm showing is
group flashing, which is a
light characteristic.
I've also called this one
double bulls eye rock of ages.
Yeah, I don't know what that is.
Find out.
Start point England.
Oh, yeah, a lot of these are not
from within the US as well.
So I have some examples
that are not especially
because one of these lenses
that I'm going to talk about,
I don't think we have any in the US.
And so all the examples from Ireland.
But anyway, group flashing
just means that you see
more than one flash
before there's the eclipse.
So you'll see two fast flashes
and then a moment
where there's no flashing.
So other lenses rotating probably.
It's exactly what it sounds like.
Group flashing.
You see more.
There's a group of flashes
and then a period of darkness.
So the way that this affects
the Fresnel lens is that
you can't have the lens
separated evenly
by bullseyes.
You have to have them
smashed together,
which is how you end up
with a double bullseye.
Basically like a nucleus,
like of two bullseyes.
Two little eyes
smacked together.
It looks like an owl's face.
Yeah, like a fish.
So this one on the left would be
two equivalent flashes,
it looks like.
And on the right,
I'm looking at a half circle
and then a full circle.
So maybe if they were rotating
a very fast flash
and then a longer flash,
like I don't know
that it'd be faster.
It would be less bright,
I would guess.
I don't know.
Half full, half full.
Maybe if I can find a video of it.
This is yeah.
And we're looking at
Start Point England.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's cool.
I've never we've looked at
Fresnel lenses many times
for this podcast,
and I've never really paid
this much attention.
Yeah, it's very cool.
And plus this this one's neat
because it's not it's in a very
irregular shape of lens.
There's no it's not symmetrical
or anything.
It's very I guess actually
the double the first picture
is symmetrical,
but it's goofy.
Yeah.
Also, group flashing is
the lens that was in
Point Arena Lighthouse,
which is the last one
that I covered.
This is the one that I was talking
about that's in Ireland.
Two very cool examples,
one of them very old,
a first order by form lens,
which sounds like what we talked
about for Sweden by form.
Oh, yeah.
But I'm not sure exactly
how that would have worked
because one of them was fixed
and one of them was rotating.
So it must not have been like this.
It probably just in translation
probably still meant two lights.
But anyway, by form is two
Fresnel lenses stacked
on top of each other
and then usually rotating.
And so what what's the purpose?
You'd have to flash.
It's just one flash you would see,
but it's twice as intense or
it is colors at once.
It's interesting because I'm
I'm not.
Totally sure if it's to make more light
or if it's like if you have a tall ship
and a little ship,
maybe it'd be easier to see for both.
I'm not really sure
because it's not like you'd see two beams.
Well, a light comes from a point, right?
So from any lighthouse,
it comes from the point,
which is the lighthouse is the source.
So if you wanted it to be
brighter, this might be one of the options
because you can't put lights
next to each other.
They would contradict in one plane
or the other.
One would block the other.
True revolving.
Yeah.
So if there were one on top of the other,
they would never be blocked.
Right.
And they'd both be visible.
But I think you would actually
have two light sources.
I don't think.
Yeah, definitely.
And one bulb or one flame would.
And any time they have stacked
lenses like this,
there's a floor in between them
for people to stand on
so you can access the top
and the bottom lens.
Anyways, this is really neat.
Yeah. And the second one.
The same lens.
No, these are different.
This was, I think.
Ireland.
Really early on.
The second one is a current lens.
They're both clamshell lenses,
which I thought was cool.
Oh, cool.
A bi-form clamshell lens.
I feel like people are just
getting fancy at this point.
I know.
They're like, what can we do?
That's different.
I'm going to put three of them
on top of one another.
We're going to make the whole tower
out of Fresnel lenses.
Yeah, I'm sad we don't have any
of these in the U.S.
Maybe we do.
And I just haven't been able to find any.
But so far, it's only been in Ireland
that I've seen some.
I followed one on Instagram.
It's called Old Head Lighthouse in Kinsale.
I don't know.
But I followed them on Instagram.
They have some cool videos
of the lens rotating.
It's really neat.
And our last example is the group occulting lens.
This one was on the USLA,
just doesn't have a location on it.
So I'm not sure where it was from.
But I thought this was really cool
because it's I can't tell
if this panel that's in between
the two lights is see through
or if it's brass like brass to me.
Yeah, I think I think you're right.
It's like a surprised owl.
Yeah, he's like, whoa.
But yeah, basically,
what we're looking at is
there's a bullseye that's interrupted by
it is basically like they took out
a panel of the Fresnel lens
and put in some brass.
So you would actually not see any light
from this angle whenever the panel moved by.
And that's another thing I saw
with flashing lights is that occasionally
they would have a fixed Fresnel lens
and then would have a rotating
like mechanism around the outside of metal plates.
And so it would as it rotated,
you'd see these moments of darkness
where there was a metal plate
crossing over your line of vision.
And so they would simulate
having a flashing Fresnel lens by
having this rotating,
which I think would be a lot cheaper.
So, yeah, well, it'd be a lot easier
to have a smaller item rotate than the larger.
Definitely. And also like
way back in the day before Fresnel lenses,
I can't remember the name of it,
but there was a reflective plate
that would go behind a candle
or whatever the light source was a lamp
and the plate would be what moved
in the same the same fashion. Yeah.
Much dimmer than our
current Fresnel lenses.
But it's the same concept.
That's cool. Yeah.
And occulting, we've covered this,
but occulting just means that there are
moments of darkness, like, you know,
a flashing lens is usually like it's dark
and then there's a bright flashlight
and then it goes dark again.
But this one's like it's mostly lit
and then small moments of darkness
and then lit again.
And it's different than if you were looked at.
Well, if you looked
at a nearby light lighthouse
and you could see a constant light
and then a flash, the flash
is obviously the concentrated
Fresnel panel, but the constant light
is meaning that it's not technically
occulting because it's not blocked
by something. Exactly.
Yeah. And that's all of it.
I have one more picture.
This is where I'm going to complain.
Did I? So you remember the other day
when I told you
that the worst thing in the world
just happened to me
and I was going to tell you about it later.
Yeah, but you couldn't tell me at the time.
Yeah. This is what it is.
Yes. Where this light is somewhere
where you already have been.
Yes. I in Hawaii.
My mom said.
Oh, you get to pick.
I got to say her name.
Oh, mom.
You get to pick any lighthouse,
just one that the whole family will go to.
And I was like, oh, we'll just go to
Barber's Point.
It's it was the closest to us.
You didn't have to hike to get there.
This one had like a total
of two hours of hiking,
which would have been fine.
And the drive was maybe an hour
away from our Airbnb.
So, you know, all together,
I would have been inconveniencing
my family more by deciding
to go to this lighthouse.
But what you're looking at
is the only hyper radial lens
that is in the US in Hawaii.
And I was I was a singular
self made decision away
from seeing it because it's still there.
It's still the functioning
hyper radiant lens.
And I just missed out.
I just I just missed out.
I decided to not go.
I have to go back to Hawaii.
It's so awful.
I was just so close.
And so for those watching the video,
I have pictures up of
the little lighthouse.
It's on the edge of a cliff,
which is why it's so short
and cute and stout.
And the next picture
is a little bit of a close
up of the lens
in the lighthouse.
And then the one after that
is an older picture
of before it was put in.
And there's a man standing next to it.
This lens is 12 feet tall,
12 tons in weight.
It's pretty damn big.
Honestly, most explicit
lighthouse podcast on the Internet.
I I won't get over this
for a long time that I was a
a decision of my own away
from seeing the only hyper
radiant lens in the US.
And I said no.
It's 12 tons in weight.
Yeah.
24,000 pounds.
I don't know how tall that guy is,
but it's probably
12 feet across diameter.
12 feet tall.
So he's probably a little short.
He's not quite six foot.
Including the like.
With his bowler hat.
Including the top.
I feel like it's about three times his height.
That is insane.
So why?
Why is this a hyper radial?
Hawaii just wanted to flex
on the rest of the US.
They're like, you know what?
I think I'll cover this lighthouse,
I think.
OK, because it's very cool
that this lens is still in use
and you have to hike to get there.
This is not like you drive up to it.
You have to hike.
And so someone has to hike out here.
It looks so cool.
I know it looks like a glowing egg
of possibilities.
Is that a is that a modern beacon?
Yeah, it looks like a flame,
but I know it's it's got to be
like an LED or something color.
Oh, man, that's incredible.
I'm so you missed out.
You screwed that one up.
I had been more educated on the subject.
I absolutely would have been like,
we're driving, we're hiking,
and this area where the the cliff
that this lighthouse is on is beautiful.
People do the hike,
not for the lighthouse,
to see the view.
Oh, well, if only they knew,
then they would do it.
So for those who are traveling
soon to Hawaii, which island is this?
Oahu.
Oahu has this one.
We're going to cover it soon at some point.
Oh, man.
Yeah, live.
Please live better.
Make better choices than I did.
Point Barber's pretty cool.
That's the one you saw.
Is that right?
Yeah, it doesn't have
a lantern room anymore.
And so it's kind of a.
This is so cool.
I just can't believe.
I mean, Barber's Point is good.
All lighthouses are special
and wonderful in their own ways.
But I really.
The big one.
Past self screwed my my present self over.
Have to go back.
I will. I know.
Now I have to.
So this is the way I can get you to go hiking.
Yes, 100 percent.
All right. Noted.
I would 100 percent have hiked that.
Goodness gracious.
OK, so we're going to move on.
This is the end of our
the longest history really of all time
and going to move on to our lighthouse,
which what we're covering today is Montauk
Point in New York.
I've heard of it.
New York.
I don't know.
Pretty sure there's a song that
I wanted you to take it off from.
That might be Frank Sinatra.
I'm not sure.
I just know about it from Madagascar.
Anyway, so Montauk Point Lighthouse.
People say that if you were only
to ever see one lighthouse in your entire
life, this would be the one to go to.
Mm hmm.
That's what they say.
So not Boston Harbor Light,
not Hatteras, Cape Hatteras.
Honestly, this one's pretty old too.
It's it's a triangle.
It's basically it's like it's like the
first lighthouse you would see as a
immigrant or a settler coming from Europe.
And so it was kind of like, you know, it
has a lot of history and the Statue of
Liberty.
Well, you'd see that one after.
I'll show you a map of what it looks like.
I thought I had you.
No, you thought you had me.
I'm the owner of this podcast,
but I'm usually I'm often wrong, so I
can't say that anyway.
So I will show you.
That's really cool.
It's very nice.
That's legitimate.
Aesthetically pleasing and all these rocks
that they have down there.
Three car garage.
Oh, wow.
I didn't notice that.
So the point.
I'll show you a map a little bit later.
It was originally named Turtle Hill or
maybe it's still called Turtle Hill.
The point it's Montauk Point,
but I think the land that the lighthouse
is built on is Turtle Hill.
I haven't really been able to figure out
if it's still Turtle Hill or if it's, you
know, or if it was renamed to Montauk
Point.
But either way, the point is named after
the local tribe of Montauk Indians or
Montaukette.
I don't know.
There was a couple of different names for
the tribe.
So I'll just go with Montauk Indians.
The tribe was part of a confederation of
four different tribes, and each of these
tribes were led by four brothers.
And so it's kind of a cool story, but
their dad was a chief who was like
highly respected.
And so they
inherited authority and respect from
other people and decided to separate
into these four tribes that met for like
like a democracy.
That's cool.
Yeah.
And they controlled a large majority of
Long Island when European settlers came
in the 17th century.
And here's a breakup of the Native
American tribes, like what land they
controlled.
And so Montaukette is down there.
This is Long Island, and there's a part
of it that's controlled by Montauk.
And that's the point at the very, very
tip of this section that's controlled by
the Montauk Indians is Montauk.
Towards Block Island.
Yeah.
Which is another lighthouse.
What?
Block Island lighthouse.
Oh, cool.
Pretty sure.
Cool.
Montaukette.
Oh, pretty sure it's on the list.
I think it is.
Oh, yeah, that's exciting.
Well, I'm looking at Cape Cod over here.
Plymouth, Boston, they're all on the map.
It's a big lighthouse area.
Yeah.
Heavy in lighthouses.
So but actually, you know, the
settlers came in 17th century.
Besides the building of the lighthouse,
this area remained largely untouched by
colonists until close to the 1900s.
So, yeah, it's like we built the lighthouse,
but it wasn't populated with a bunch of people.
It was still.
That's surprising to me.
I thought this was the first populated area
of the U.S.
Yeah, and it's just because it was Long Island.
You know, it became populated further away,
but since it was all out here, yeah, you're
kind of, we didn't have a need for.
Now it's pretty packed these days.
Yeah.
Isn't Long Island like really rich area?
It has some good iced tea out there.
I cannot.
I can't turn down a long.
I'm so funny.
I think from what I understand, it's kind of
a escape from the city.
And I think it's a very wealthy area.
That's nice.
For people who can afford to have homes out there as well.
That's my assumption.
I've never been over big, nice houses.
Yeah.
But actually, land only changed hands.
This land only changed hands three times in 300 years.
So.
Okay.
Changed hands from Native Americans to settlers.
Yeah.
And on and on.
But, you know, from 1655 to 1926, it only changed hands three times.
So according to legend, the natives would light
fires on the tip of this point, a Montauk point,
to summon chiefs and warriors to council.
Awesome.
And following that in the Revolutionary War,
the British would light large bonfires at the end
of the point to signal to their warships.
So naturally, the next beacon that would be placed on this point
would be in the exact same spot.
And that's Montauk Point Lighthouse.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
So it was used as a, not a lighthouse, but a beacon.
Yeah.
It was, yeah, definitely.
Before the lighthouse.
That's really neat.
Yep.
So in 1792, so we're going far back, not as far back as like
Boston Light, but only like 80 years after that or something.
George Washington himself authorized the building of this lighthouse
due to the danger of the land posed to getting to the main ports.
And so here's a picture, a Google image of the land.
You can see New York, you know, where the Statue of Liberty is.
You have to pass this.
You know, Long Island is kind of like if you're coming in,
you would see Montauk Point Lighthouse before you would see
Statue of Liberty are coming in.
It's not that it's more important.
It's just that this is the indicator that you have a turning
where you either go into the sound or you're going up to Newport
or you come to New York City.
That's kind of where it tells you.
The builders made it like a fortress.
I don't know what happened, but the lowest bidder was selected.
I believe it was $22,000 at this time.
That's a ton of money.
They built the foundation 13 feet deep.
I was like, what?
It's just an unbelievable amount of effort put in.
It's a lot of concrete.
For being the lowest bidder.
And this is 1790 something.
Yeah, 1792.
That's significant.
I mean, today, if you said 13 foot of concrete for a foundation,
I'd be like, yeah, no problem.
But you have some different methods.
And it's in there.
I mean, you saw the picture earlier.
It's right on the edge of the point.
So it makes sense that they would be like, this needs a lot of support.
For the lowest bidder to put in that much effort.
And George Washington himself said he's quoted being like,
this lighthouse is going to last a couple of centuries.
But you're like, whoa.
Yeah, he's making some comment about the budget.
Yeah, he's probably like, wow.
He'd be right, because this lighthouse is still the original lighthouse
that was built in the late 1700s.
The same guy who built this lighthouse also built Cape Henry lighthouse,
which is another one that I really want to cover.
He built that in 1791.
So just before he built this one.
And that one is still standing, even though it hasn't been touched
in over a century.
Where is it at? Cape Henry?
Virginia.
I should look it up.
But I didn't.
I started looking into it and I was like, no, no.
We are focused on one lighthouse right now.
Do not get confuddled by looking up other lighthouses.
But yeah, you can still climb it, too.
It's not like it's decrepit and still standing.
It's like solid.
That's awesome.
Anyway.
Good for them.
Yeah, I know that guy that guy should get a medal for his engineering
strong lighthouses.
Construction only took five months and it was lit November 5th, 1796.
So four years away from the fast turn of the century.
It was the first lighthouse in New York State.
Proceeded a lot of new a lot of different lighthouses.
But this is the first one.
The tower is octagonal and made with red Connecticut sandstone.
It was originally 78 feet tall and all white.
But as you saw in the picture now, it has a red band around it.
That happened in 1899.
So that was 100 years after it was originally built that they changed its day
mark.
Here's what it originally looked like.
This picture was in 1884, which is the earliest photo I found in the US.
I'm sure there's earlier ones, but 1884.
I think the earliest picture I had seen from them was 1899.
I think that must have been incredible at the time to take a photo, to build
that the photo as well.
Look at the foghorn coming out of the.
Oh, yeah.
The foghorn looks like it's several feet, like a tall as that guy coming out of
the I assume that's where the steam whistle or foghorn is that anyway.
The first head keeper was 64 year old Jacob Hand.
So he should be retiring and he's not.
And he got the job on the stipulation that his grandson Jared would help him as
an assistant keeper without getting paid.
It was like a package deal.
Yeah.
To two in the family for one price.
Yeah.
So Jacob served for 16 years.
This guy was 80 by the time he decided to stop being a lighthouse keeper.
Really impressive.
You think about your grandpa.
No.
Climbing the lighthouse several times a day.
It's just mind blowing.
I can't especially back then.
Sixty four was not the 64 that it is today.
No.
And I want to know what he did all that time to be 64 and still be physically
able to do all this hard work for 16 years.
It's crazy.
Crazy.
But he suggested around being 80 that Jared take over the running of the
lighthouse and President Thomas Jefferson said no because he was like I
don't want lighthouse keepers to be hereditary.
I don't want this to be a job where you pass it on to your son and nobody
else can do it.
It's like he's going to have to apply like everybody else.
But naturally Jared's been working at the lighthouse as a keeper for 16 years
of his life.
It's a pretty good resume for the job application.
Yeah.
So naturally he beat out everybody and became headkeeper.
It's just a natural turn of events.
Well good.
I mean it's good that they actually did a job.
I don't know what it looked like at that time but a job hunt.
You know they posted on LinkedIn.
Yeah.
You had to fill out the application.
No nepotism.
Had to do a security check.
Yeah.
Background check.
Credit check.
So that was in 1812 when he took over the station already like in this picture
you can see there's a couple of buildings.
Three and then the foghorn building.
I spy four.
I meant three and the foghorn.
Oh oh excuse me.
Excuse me.
Again once again I thought I had you.
So I was going to complain because I was reading online that there was so many
keepers dwellings.
It was like they built a new one every 10 years or something.
I'm like where are these buildings coming from?
But I think originally when they said there were three keepers dwellings around
this I think what they're referring to are there were three buildings.
They were the oldest buildings in New York or something like built in the 1700s
and they were for livestock.
So people this land you could bring your livestock to graze and then take them
back.
And so there were buildings where keepers would tend to the livestock and watch
over the livestock.
But they weren't lighthouse keepers.
They were livestock keepers.
And so I think that's where I got confused.
I was like why is there so many keepers cottages?
And it was for a different purpose.
Anyway so I was going to say like they had all these keepers dwellings and they
built another one in 1837 that was six rooms.
And I was like there's no official assistant keeper until 20 years after that.
So I was like why do they keep building light?
Keepers cottages.
But I think that's what it comes from.
And Montauk Historical Society they have a page on I think it's called second
house.
I feel like I should have second house.
Yeah I feel like I should have done more research on that.
But that there was three houses and the second house is the one that's closest to
this and the historical society is in charge of keeping that.
So they have a whole page on it of it being the oldest standing building from
whenever.
So I didn't do a lot of looking deep into that but you can.
I think I'm going to put in our show notes the historical society page you can
go take a look at it yourself.
So sorry I'm looking at the image still.
So there's one built in 1837 that's a six bedroom.
So I think that's the dark building.
It must be.
Yeah.
And then I was looking at this the chimney on this white building is enormous.
Oh of course.
Steam.
It's a steam.
It's a boiler.
Yeah.
I would that make sense where those chimneys over on the residential house are
probably just fireplaces or yeah probably or oil houses.
Yeah storage etc.
And then the rain that looks like there's a gutter that goes over to something.
I wonder if it doesn't feed into the boiler building.
That's good.
I think that's a nice observation.
I think you'd be right.
There's probably a cistern underneath the fog hard building.
Really cool.
It's impressive image for 1884.
They probably had to stand there like that for a long time.
The people in this picture.
Remember it was like a flash and you had to not move for a long time.
Yeah.
What is that called.
Exposure photography.
I'm not sure.
I think it is 1880.
I was born in 1995.
It's crazy.
This picture is 110 years older than you.
And up there they've got a lighthouse or a lightning rod I think.
And one of my favorite parts of this lighthouse and they restored it to be exactly the same as it was in this picture.
The balcony.
Look at the thick X shaped balcony.
It's just like a very fancy detailed balcony.
I wouldn't expect the lowest bidder to put so much effort.
They're like we're going to be the lowest, best bidder.
They're like best foundation, best balcony.
Also, I've never considered this until this moment.
The balcony.
Is that what it's the official?
Well, gallery.
I just did an episode covering what these are called.
So that thing you walk on is lower than the light room.
Probably because if it was the same level you'd be in the beam of light.
No, look, there's another one.
That's the lantern gallery.
And then there's the main gallery is below that where it's I was talking about it's in line with the storm room or the watch room.
Where the floor is inside the tower.
Where the clockwork would be hung and such.
Well, never mind.
You'd be right in that beam because you have to clean the glass outside of the lens too.
So it's powerful, full power.
The lighthouse got a first order Fresnel lens in 1857 as well as their new six room Keepers Cottage.
The lighthouse at that time at 78 feet was not tall enough to be considered a first class coastal light.
Oh, too short.
Yeah, it's not.
It wasn't tall enough.
So around 1860, three years later, they increased the height of the lighthouse by 30 feet, which brings it to its final total, which is the same as today of 110.5 feet.
Legitimate.
Yeah.
They increased the wooden steps, like leading up to the lantern room with iron and built another Keepers dwelling.
And one of them is today, the museum that it's like highly rated, the coolest museum ever.
They always tell you to go to it, but I can't.
I don't know exactly which Keepers Cottage it's in.
No one does.
There's so many.
They just built their own community out there, Long Island.
All right. In 1903, the first order lens was replaced by the three and a half order by valve lens that I showed during the history buoy.
So there's a nice picture of that.
It was revolving and had a white flash every 15 seconds.
And they also added a fourth order fixed red range lens in the lantern room.
And it's basically just a fourth order lens.
And if you moved far enough to come in view of the red, it was saying that you were getting close to Shaguang Reef, which was three and a half miles from the lighthouse.
I didn't do a lot of research on it, but its elevation is zero feet.
So basically it's like it's on the cusp of being an island.
So as you'd be going around the lighthouse, you, the traveler on the boat, would come into a red light.
Yeah. You'd see a red light appear, which means that you need to take caution.
It would mean that you're, you're coming too close to.
Because it's fourth order. It's only so powerful.
So you're within range and at that angle.
Yeah, exactly.
That's really interesting.
So you'd still see the flashing of the lighthouse, but if you went too far, too close to the point, then you would see this red light and have to.
I wonder if that's what was going on.
That's what I was thinking.
At our lighthouse.
Oh my gosh.
I know. I remember us talking about it, but I don't know which lighthouse it was.
It was in Sweden.
Lundsors.
Oh yeah.
Lundsors Sphere.
Right.
Yeah. When the one I was talking about, maybe it was bi-form, but I don't think it was.
But they had a lower, like a window, I think.
Yeah.
We never got to get there.
The little red light peeked through.
So anyway, I thought that was really cool. I've never seen.
No, I've never heard of that before.
Yeah.
Here's a.
That's cool.
This was after the height was added, which is why I think the lantern room looks different.
And they also have the reddish brown band that you see on it today.
Did you see anything about them? How they added height? Did they build on top? Did they?
They didn't build a new tower.
No, they built it from the top, I'm assuming. I think they probably added more, more of the sandstone bricks to the top.
But they, what's the, there's a lot going on here. Is that a driving range down here on the left?
Into the ocean?
Yeah.
I don't know. Yeah. I remember them talking about building this tower. I think it was a war thing, like a world war.
Okay.
One or world war two thing that they built another tower that was for something. I don't know.
Could be. Yeah. It could just be better suited for people to be up there with different.
This is a much later image, but I was going to show you this is the picture of the.
That's the revolving lens.
Yeah. The bite, the, God, clamshell. Geez.
And then the picture next to it is, I think it's the picture, it came up in the US LHS in association with this lighthouse.
So I think this is the red fourth order lens I was talking about. And maybe it's in this casing so that you only see half of the lens.
You know, it's like, it's not projecting any beams towards our clamshell lens. That's right behind it.
It's probably, they focused all of it outwards.
And it was below the clamshell lens.
It's probably just outside of it, like sitting on the ground over here.
Cool. It was in the lantern room.
So, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Looks heavy duty. Man.
I know the keeper at the time that they added these two new lights was James G Scott, who had the longest headkeeper stint at the station from 1885 to 1910.
So that's 35 years, I think. Oh, 25.
Math is hard.
35. 15 plus 10 is 25. 35.
A couple of big schooner, oh God, I forgot to look at it. I did it too. Boats. What is it? Schooner. Yeah.
Crashes happened during his watch. Not that it was his fault, but he was there for 25 years. Something had to happen. 25 at least.
Yeah. And so he had two big crashes. One of them was carrying cocoa beans and one of them was carrying coconuts.
And this is the first time I've seen this. What? Nothing. I was going to push a wham wham button, but I decided not to because people might have died.
Yeah, right. I don't think so. I think it probably would have mentioned that. It didn't.
Cocoa beans and coconuts. The first thing that I noticed that the first time that I've noticed that if something crashes and stuff washes ashore, you just get to keep it.
In both of these instances, they were like there was a crash and so then we had coconuts for a really long time and like we made tons of I'm like, you just kept it.
I don't know. Don't they want their stuff back? I don't know.
I think you'd you know, they lose, you know, they crash and they lose their boat. They'd want their stuff back, but they've been robbed.
I don't know that there's a law or a rule on that in those times. You think it's like free.
I don't think it's free, but they have to come collect it. The owner has to come collect it. If they don't, then it's just waste.
Yeah, especially both of those are perishable items. Yeah. So yeah, true. It's not like it's gold. They, you know, we're shipping.
Yeah. Yeah. So I just thought it was funny. They talked about after this, they created Montauk pudding, which is basically chocolate bread pudding.
Sounds good. The cocoa beans and they said locals at the time said that if you visited somewhere for a year after this coconut crash, you were you would expect to have coconut cake for dessert at somebody's house.
Oh, my gosh. Everyone had the coconuts and they just were trying to get rid of them, but not throw them away.
Yeah. And the locals held a contest after the coconuts washed up and they just kept them all.
I don't know. I just think it's so crazy that it's just like, oh, you crashed. I'm going to keep all of your good coconuts float.
Yeah. Is that common? That's not common knowledge. But I would think they'd be in crates too. So yeah, I don't know the details of how this happened, but they ended up with all the coconuts.
And they said they held a contest to see, you know, like everyone made coconut something and they held a contest to see who would win the best coconut creation.
And the winner was a four tiered coconut cake that had coconut frosting and shredded coconut in the batter and the frosting and the layers. It was just like a coconut bonanza.
That sounds awesome. I would love that. The same thing happened during the Prohibition era with Licker, allegedly.
John E. Miller and John A. Miller, a father and son duo who were keepers at the lighthouse. They were head and first assistant keeper. They were suspected of collaborating with bootleggers.
Oh, John. The Johns, double John. The Coast Guard heard of two grounded ships on the beach of the Point suspected of carrying illegal liquor.
And they called the Millers because they're in view of this beach. And they were like, are the ships there? And the Millers were like, no, no, there's no ships.
They must have gotten up and walked away, you know, slurring their words on the phone. They fixed it.
But so, however, the Coast Guard sent people to check it out. And there's two ships grounded on the beach, surrounded by liquor cases that were empty.
Oh, no. Yeah. They walked away clearly. And the Millers wouldn't return calls from the Coast Guard.
You would think the Coast Guard would just break down the door during Prohibition. Yeah.
But they didn't have any proof that it was just suspicious. They could. There's no proof or anything. So they just had to let it go. There's never anything brought out of this.
It's just but lighthouse keepers, lighthouse keepers very largely. It's an honorable truth telling. Yes. Very specific on their log books.
And that's why it's so suspicious. Pretty big assumption to make. Yeah. Those guys are clearly. I don't know, like to be sketchy and not answer phone calls and then lie about whether or not they're ships.
They also had a bunch of unexplained cash flow. And lighthouse liquor started up the next day.
John and John. That would be cool. So anyway, just thought that was a fun little story. Yeah.
The lighthouse was automated in 1987. Wait, let me see if I have any more pictures. Oh, it's just the lighthouse. Yeah. So beautiful. Automated in 1987 and immediately taken over by Montauk Historical Society.
So this is like this wonderful collaboration where it was taken over by a historical society or, you know, a nonprofit immediately after. There was no time where it wasn't being taken care of.
It was always being they wanted it right away. Yeah. Which is awesome. You didn't have to search. You didn't have to fight for it. It was just like the seamless transition of power over the lighthouse.
So they opened the Keepers Dwelling as a museum and it includes that third and a half order for an Ellen. So you can go see that nowadays.
The it's one white flash every five seconds through an arrow beacon. And so there's no arrow.
No, it's just a stupid joke to myself. Last time you told me about arrow beacons. Oh, yeah. I thought arrow was a brand like the apple of beacons. Yeah. They have the whole market.
For those who didn't listen to that arrow was a style of beacon. Yeah. It's an electric beacon that places lighthouse. It was originally it's called an arrow beacon because it was originally in airports.
That makes sense. Yeah. So this lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. And this one's really cool. A national historic landmark in 2012. Oh, cool. Which only 12 lighthouses total are added to the landmark list. That's awesome. Yeah.
The 11th. So there's one more after this that was added. But currently there's only 12 lighthouses that are national landmarks. This is a just by appearances and also through the story. This is a really special lighthouse. I know. Yeah. Yeah. People. Yeah. I think this is a well loved lighthouse for sure.
I gotta say one more thing while we're here. Sure. Image that tower that was added for wartime efforts. Yeah. So there's the top, which is a railed. You know, you can be on the top. Yeah. And there's three different stories with like bunker style windows. I wonder if it's not like a gun tower. It looks like that. It looks like what we climbed into in Hawaii.
There there were bunkers like that in the in the rock of the island. I can't remember what they were called, but they were built like that. So yeah, it did talk about that tower, but there was a lot of details about this lighthouse. So I just I had to skip. Yeah. We're not a gun tower. That's not a lighthouse. Yeah. Although there happens to be gun towers at a lot of lighthouses. That's true. Well, yeah, because people are always trying to bomb them. It's evil. Well, and they got good lookout points and ports nearby.
So they're the first image we saw overhead had like this beach that's that we're on now. And they had some surfers, I think people with surfboards. Yeah, maybe it's a good surfing spot. I have heard that this is a good that this is a well traveled beach that it's very popular to come to. And you know, in this picture, there's a lot of rocks. Obviously they had trouble with erosion. Yeah. And I didn't make I didn't make notes on this, but they obviously were worried about the lighthouse losing the lighthouse because of the light.
Erosion in this lady suggests came and suggested that they cut this coast into terraces, you know, like steps, steps in the side and then plant, you know, grasses and local plants and everything. And that stopped erosion. It's like she solved the problem. And then later on, the Coast Guard added all this riprap along the side, too.
But I should have covered it more because she did that to save her own house or something. She kind of came up with the idea, proved that it worked and then came to the lighthouse and was like, I have an answer to your problem. I've heard of that before. Yeah. I think they do that for multiple reasons with different types of like orchard, like not orchard grapes and olive growth that cut terraces.
I think they do that with tea leaves, too, in Japan. We saw a lot of those. The root systems stabilizes the soil rather than, you know, a sloped. Yeah. The sand doesn't fall away because it's being held together with. That's genius. Yeah. So I mean, she literally saved the lighthouse from being having to move or get destroyed.
Yeah, we move a lot of lighthouses. It's not easy. It's like it's our job. This one, they'd have to move all 17 houses to challenge. That's hilarious. So 1999, a three phase restoration project was completed. And this is why I covered the lighthouse.
They had another restoration, three phase restoration that started in 2019 and they just finished it as of recording this podcast. It'll post later. But as of recording, it was two weeks ago. They finished. Oh, wow. Starting in 2019 and just finished.
I know it took a lot longer than building the lighthouse. Yeah, I know.
Yeah, the first phase was completed in 2019. They repaired metal in the lantern room, the catwalk and the top of the tower. So anything metal, they fixed that up. The second phase was the most extensive included all stone and mortar repairs and paint stripping.
This started just as COVID hit. So they faced a bunch of problems with supply chain issues and basically it extended their projected completion time of this restoration.
But they started back up again, I think last year and completed 2022. Yeah. And then completed. Maybe it was 2021. I can't remember. But they completed that phase this year in the spring. And then the third phase was recoding the lighthouse. It's like this.
It's coating that protects the brick, but allows it to breathe so that water doesn't get trapped. Yeah, I can't remember if we covered that already.
I've heard about that for houses even. You can't. You can, but you shouldn't paint brick because of the moisture content. It will break down. So you can like, I forget, like bleach it to make brick white on your house. You can actually take the color out of it. It's not bleach, but it's a process like that. Yeah. White washing rather than just it's not actually paint. And then I don't know how they do the red, but some more to learn. I think that's a good point.
And then I don't know how they do the red, but some more to learn. I think it is paint, but then special. Yes, special paint. And then there's a coating on top that protects everything.
But anyway, the best month for doing that is June. I'm not sure if it's because of the temperature or the moisture in the air or something.
But they were able to do that and it was finished on time. So they posted a picture of the visible brick version of the lighthouse, which is really fun. I think actually there's a picture when they stripped it so you can still see where the stripe would be.
I don't know if it's just over time, you know, over 100 and something years, you stain the bricks. That's the image I'm going to use for our YouTube picture. Okay, yeah. But it's a good one. It's so cool.
Yeah. Look at the iron work inside of the cupola. Is that right? Up top? Oh, yeah. This is so pretty. This lighthouse is so visually appealing. Even naked.
We like it naked. But yeah, you can see the white washed area and then I assume that's the red stripe looks blackened.
Yeah, it's just tinted. So it didn't have the same process. Well, and stripping how many, well, several hundred years of paint, right? Yeah. I mean, or whatever the finish is. Right. And then small bricks up top.
Probably part of the addition. Really neat. Yeah, they posted another picture of this. I didn't put it in the slideshow, but there's a lightning rod to cable going down the side. Oh, yeah. Good eye.
Their Instagram is MTK underscore lighthouse. So at MTK, which is Montauk Point Lighthouse. And you can see pictures. They did a, it was officially completed on August 16th, 2023. They did a ribbing cutting ceremony where they celebrated all the people who made it happen.
And I think the mayor was there and they posted pictures of all of that on their Instagram and all the steps of doing the restoration. So you can go and check it out. And yeah, another thing that I wanted to point out is that Montauk Point decorates like crazy for the holidays.
That's like, look at this. Whoa. It's amazing. Every crease of the lighthouse is covered in lights and the Keepers Cottage, they surrounded every window with lights, the roof, the chimneys. It's so cool.
Have we talked about Montauk Point before? Because that's like a mast pole. I don't think we have, but we've seen that somewhere else too. I wonder if there's some meaning behind that that we don't know. It's like a ship mast, like a cross.
You focus on things that I would never pay any attention to in pictures. Sorry. No, I just think it's funny. It's like, I'm just like, look at all these lights and you're like, there's a mast in this picture.
It's also not lit up, which I guess it would look like a cross. So maybe that's a little, depends on. To me it looks like a sword sticking out of the ground. Yeah. I just think it's really pretty. That's a lot of lights.
Because the tower is what? A hundred feet tall now? 110. Yeah. I just wanted to show it. I was thinking one of our episodes, we have on the schedule an episode to post on a Christmas day. And I'm wondering if I should just do a really quick episode where I talk about lighthouses that decorate like crazy for the holidays.
Yeah, it can't hurt. So that's why I thought I would mention this. We talked about flying Santa last year. Yeah. Remind people to watch that one too. I know. For Christmas time. Have I covered St. Augustine Lighthouse? No. We've talked about it a couple times, but never. I think I've started my research and I won't spoil anything. Okay.
Ignoring what I just said. You're spoiling. Have you looked into like what they do? Like tours and Montauk Point? Do they have a website that shows that? They do have a website and I'll link it. I don't know if they rent out. You can climb it. I don't know if they rent it out or anything like that. I know there's more than one Keepers Cottage, so I don't know. It's up in the air. I haven't looked exactly what they offer, but they have a lot of different facets to their website. So.
It's just another place. I'd love to go. I know, all these White House, add it to the list and they're all spread out. Why are they all spread out? Well, I've never been to New York except for once. Yeah, it was recently. We were there for what couple hours. Yeah, we decided Times Square Times Square and Central Park got pizza close by, then we went back to the airport. Yeah, that was so. I don't think we saw much of it. They have all kind of a lot of things that just happened in 180,
of New York. Yeah I tried to plan out the visit being lighthouse focused and we
would have had to have rent a car in like that four hour time period and drive
but we would have been able to hit like five different lighthouses in that time
period they were all so close together. We'll do it on our own. Yeah. On our own trip.
Really good episode. Thank you. Anyway that's Montauk Point Lighthouse.
It's apparently the one to go to if you are only gonna go to one lighthouse. I think
people might contest that. Oh I didn't think the comments are open. The comment
section is open. Yeah if you think there's a better lighthouse to go to you
should send us the name of the lighthouse over the lighthouselowdown.com
in an email lighthouselowdown.gmail.com or over a voicemail if you're
brave enough. Do it. Montauk Point. Is this the first one it's the first one in
New York State. Yes. Is this the first one we've covered over there? I think it
might be. I think it is. I mean we talked to people over there that probably think
those are not close at all. Yeah probably. They showed up in the same map. Kansas City.
Our perspective is that those are close. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah so another thing I
wanted to mention just before we end the podcast is that you can leave us a
review on our website lighthouselowdown.com. The amount of time I've said that today.
Lighthouselowdown.com. Or you can leave one over Spotify. I saw we have like nine
reviews on Spotify. I can't believe there's a lighthouse about her. No no. Oh my
gosh. I can't believe there's a lighthouse about this. A lighthouse about this podcast. But there's also we have a couple on Apple but you can
leave a review if you don't want to go to Apple or Spotify or whatever to leave
a review you can do it straight on our website. So please leave us a review if
you enjoyed this podcast and feel free to contact us if you want to tell us
about your favorite lighthouse or one you live near or if you had any fun
experiences at a lighthouse we'd love to hear all about it. We appreciate you. We
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the lighthouse lowdown.