Hi everyone, I'm Vince and I'm Emily and you're
listening to the lighthouse lowdown You're gonna
push it again, yeah, I was gonna turn it off
like enough of that you can't cut that now You
can't let it roll. I'm not used to being the
button presser. Here's what's fun First off.
Hi everyone. Welcome to 85 episode 85 You got
a five number. That's always satisfying. I know.
I don't think I've had one in a while. Anyways,
here's what's fun. When we record, we're a little
bit like radio jockeys or whatever, disc jockeys,
radio people, because we listen to the sound
playing. Almost everyone who does video and sound
editing, they insert like now. I'm going to insert
my 10 second. Welcome to. That's what I did in
the past. Ours is actually live. Yeah, so we're
like. Every time. We're extra cool. Yeah, we're
actually listening with you. Just in our headphones.
Right. Sometimes there's dancing. We actually
have a live band off to the side that plays it
every time. Okay, so welcome to 85. Thank you.
Thank you for being here. You're welcome. I'm
going to give a shout out. I found out. So we
have pretty low listens right now on YouTube.
Oh, YouTube. I was like, you're lying. Our podcast
is doing exceptional. Oh, well, thanks, everybody.
I didn't know that. It's great. It's fun. We're
bad at this as far as like knowing. Talk us up.
Talk us up. I'm not operating this as if it's
a business. I'm operating this as if it's something
I do for fun. Which it is. We make no money.
So anyways, thanks. Thanks, everybody, for coming.
But I want to give a shout out to one of the
people who is keeping our YouTube alive. Alex
at work. Oh, thank you, Alex. That's nice. He
told me he prefers to watch on YouTube. He doesn't
always watch. He says he listens. But YouTube,
he has like a premium account, I guess. So, OK,
no ads. And I was like, well, we also don't do
ads. So I can understand the appeal of. sometimes
watching like people do the podcast, but I, I
don't know. I feel more calm listening and my
eyes don't also have to be activated, you know?
Yeah. That's yeah. I like podcasts for that reason
where it's like you're listening and that's the
best part is like, I don't have to also be staring
at a screen to enjoy it. Right. Like a movie.
I'm almost always driving. I watched zero TV.
Movies are great. So I've got to let everyone
down. There's no history buoy today. That's okay.
I had one started. I know what it is still, but
I couldn't find the source material, and so I
don't want to just like half do it. I appreciate
that. No buoy. I used to have a lot more buoys
to skip to catch up to me. Well, we're doing
good. So let's just get started. Okay. I had
this lighthouse on my list for a long time. My
list is much shorter than Emily's list. It's
huge. But I'm supposed to check her list, and
I didn't until I was already like halfway through
the research. That's okay. And so I poached one.
Great minds think alike. Welcome. What is it?
To Point Bonita. Bonita. Yes. Okay, I don't know
anything about it. Cool. That's perfect. That's
what we do here. Was it a listener lighthouse
or no? No, it didn't have any credits. I wonder
how I put that on my list. So Point Bonita Lighthouse,
the reason it was on my list, it was the second
batch of eight lighthouses added to the state
of California. Oh, yes. And you've covered one
of them at least. Another one that was on our
list and you had already covered was Hereford.
No, you covered. Oh, it was on your list also.
Oh, was it? Yeah. Oh. Because it's the same.
I forget. I wish I'd, this is the time when I
should say, because I know, but I don't know.
Oh. That architecture. Yeah, yeah. They applied
it to all those lighthouses. The first four were
carried over. East to west coast. Yeah, stick.
That sounds right. Stick something. Stick style.
Stick. Stick. And then, you know, Victorian,
Gothic. Yeah. Anyway, so there's some architecture
that's shared between those. But there's a couple.
And Alcatraz Island is really close to this.
It's in the San Francisco Bay. So we're going
to talk about that first. Okay, great. So here's
a little look at the cover. I just made it. And
we're going to use the link for Vader Abode Lite
because that's the last one I looked at on Google
Maps. So we're going to go from Sweden. We're
going to just show you Sweden to San Francisco.
It's just like that. Boom, just pop on over.
At least you know where it is. I would be like,
where is it? San Francisco. And then it's over
here. I would have to type it in. No chance.
I actually did test this out like a minute ago
to see if I could find it. And then I just left
the Vaderobold. Yeah, it just happened that way.
There was a lot going on. Anyways, that's a Sweden
lighthouse that I covered last. If you're interested
in checking that out. Yeah, Vaderobold. Starts
with a V. Here's San Francisco. And here we have
the Golden Gate Bridge. Oh, look at that. That's
cool. Google does this like 360 thing I've never
seen before. Brand new. Alcatraz and East Brother
Island is a little bit north. Yes, of course.
Where's brother? Excuse me. Keep going. It's
past the little nub. Or no. Yeah. Zoom in. There
it is. Is that right? Yeah. Okay. You can't see
pink on blue. I'm too far from the screen. My
glasses are not made for this. Okay, so anyways,
here we're in San Francisco, and I'll read from
my notes, but a couple things, just kind of fun
facts that don't really fit in anywhere else.
Yeah, got to start with them. Obviously, it's
near the Golden Gate Bridge, which has a long
history in San Francisco. It's worth looking
up on its own. It's known as the hidden gem of
San Francisco because it's literally hidden behind
a rock. Point Bonita? Point Bonita. That's not
very good for a lighthouse. It's really pretty.
It's good. Okay. There's a purpose. But not for
like seeing it from the city of San Francisco.
Oh, I see what you're saying. You got to go out
there. And then I have a gap on here. Open Sunday
and Monday. I'm actually not sure. There's been
a lot of changes. Yeah. But keep in mind as we
listen, you can visit. Right now, currently,
there's a bridge that typically you would cross
that's closed for repairs. So we'll come back
to that. It's hard to get to. Yeah. So really
at this moment, I can't recommend going there.
But it's been great to visit. It looks great
to visit again. So, of course, it's busy because
it's in California. But, hey, to visit it, there's
a walk down a trail. It's about a mile. You have
to get to the island. There's a door that is
often closed. The door is closed because they're
not open. If it's open, the door goes through
a tunnel. And then maybe at the end we can watch
a little YouTube video. Cool. Just you and I.
I like it when they make getting there an adventure
too. There's a tunnel. There's a cliff side walking
path with railing and such. And then there's
a bridge that was built in the 50s, I think,
the last bridge, the latest of the bridges, 1950s,
that resembles the Golden Gate Bridge in style.
Cute. So if I'm going to flash back to our slides,
you're going to see that kind of that cable support
style. Yeah. So that's the bridge. That's cute.
What else do I want to say about that? Do you
have to do all that just to get there? Like cliffside
walkway? Yeah, it's one mile total in walking.
Climbing is not open to the public. I don't think
it ever actually has been. Is it because the
lens is still in there? The lens is still there.
Second order. Pretty cool. Jealous. Also, last
little fun fact that doesn't really fit in the
history here. Someone referred to it as pobo.
P -O -B -O. Point Bonita. Oh my gosh. So I'm
going to call it Pobo sometimes because I like
that. You know the people who actually live there
are like, no. No, it's not Pobo. Pobo. You have
to say the whole thing. Point Bonita Lighthouse.
Or maybe that's like a fond term for it. Could
be an endearment. Like by the locals. Yeah. You
know. Surf's up or whatever. I don't even know.
I have no idea if like you can surf in the San
Francisco area. No idea. Probably. There's an
ocean. There is water. So I'm going to bring
up, here's an image, the original Point Bonita
Lighthouse. That reminds me of Split Rock, just
how it's placed. That's pretty neat. Very sheer
cliff going on. Humongous. How high up is that?
Sorry, you can just continue on your notes. That's
okay. It was a 60 -foot conical brick tower situated
260 feet above the sea. Whoa. Yeah. 260 feet.
Pretty high. Well, because like looking at this
photo that you have pulled up, it looks very
short. 60 feet. That's six stories tall. Yeah.
It's a tall second order Fresnel lens. I heard
one of the guys who has made a video that I watched
and they said a Fresnel lens or Fresnel. I think
he said Fresnel. And I was like, no. Like, what
an American. Am I right? Now that we know one
thing, I'm an expert, of course. Hey, we can
be annoyed. It took a long time for us to get
that correct. Yeah, we asked that question. We
asked that question. How is it pronounced? So
Fresnel. So the original tower, we're going to
talk about, it actually wasn't a good idea of
where it was put. And you can probably deduce
why. Well, you know. Too high? Funny enough,
too high. Oh. So yeah, I'm just going to, well,
I might have to skip this later, but the original
lighthouse, the first one which we're viewing,
60 foot conical brick tower, 260 feet over the
sea. It's a one and a half story brick and stone
cottage that went with it. Yeah. That was built
near the tower. It's not shown in this image
though. Is it like tucked behind there or something?
Don't know. It's not there anymore. Oh, that's
a shame. Yeah, and the first head keeper lit
the lamp so that the lighting was May 2nd of
1855. All right. And his name was Edward Colston.
So kind of cool. First keeper. Okay. So in the
1850s, there was the gold rush, the 49ers, right?
Yeah. She's smiling so big. The gold rush. The
gold rush. You know the gold rush when we all
went up to California. I don't know what accent
that is. All right, 1849 was, right, the big
pop. So in the 1850s, California exploded. There
was a growth in San Francisco from 20 ,000 was
the ending population. I think it was like 5
,000 people. We don't talk about the gold rush
very often. It's come up a couple times in this
California. Yeah. Because trade made the area
boom. And there was a couple lighthouses already.
Lighthouses, so 1850s. So there was already lighthouses
in the area. Notably, Alcatraz Island and Fort
Point were in those first batch of eight lighthouses
that were contracted to be built on the West
Coast, the wet coast. It is wet. Are they saying
white coast? Also, if you feel something on you,
it's because there's a fly just absolutely pestering
you. I thought that was just schizophrenia coming
in slowly. It's all over you. I can feel it.
Must be stinky. Anyways. So the second batch
of eight lighthouses was this contract that included
Point Bonita or Pobo. Pobo. So it's because when
we looked at the map, you know, the bay is obviously
it's a, you know, C shape with an opening. Yeah.
Golden Gate Bridge. Bridge is the opening. Very
interesting how that happened too. What? Like
just a skinny little channel and then this big.
Yeah. Bay. And the, I actually don't know that
that's entirely, I'm sounding dumb, I'm sure,
if there was any man control to how that worked.
Probably not. Anyways, California. And so Pobo
was put out on kind of the tip of the land on
the north side. So the north side comes down,
south side comes up. The north side has this
tip out here. So it was like on the outside?
On the outside, on the southern face, southern
and western face towards the water. So there
was another place discussed. Originally it was
called Point Lobos, which is another area. It's
on the south side of the entrance of the Golden
Gate. But the locals said that actually approaching
Pobo Bonita would be better because the water
was deeper there. You could come like... 150
feet and in, you could hug this thing and then
come into the bay. Yeah, safe to get close. Right,
right. So you could go further out to sea, you
could see the other lights and come in, or it
would be nice to have another navigation point.
Yeah. So that's where Pobo came from, the need
for it. So it was $25 ,000 from Congress, which...
Oh, that's a lot, $1850. I was going to say,
it's almost never enough money, but this time
I guess California was golden. Well, we covered.
That was March 3rd of 1853. Congress allocated
those funds. And this is the time of the Lighthouse
Board in the United States. Fresh or? I don't
know. Okay, I can't remember the dates. Yeah,
I can't recall. This is early on, I think, when
westward expansion became part of the Lighthouse
Board's concerns, I think was these years. I
mean, it was really when they started building
that program out there. But it was kind of an
expensive mistake to choose the point that they
chose, which is what we talked about. It was
too high. They planned actually for the lighthouse
to sit on the highest hill on Punta Bonita. That's
not always better. It's not. There is a time
when, which what most people probably think,
oh yeah, put the light as high as you can. It'll
go the furthest. You can reference it. That's
what we've discovered not true. So the fog in
this area in particular, even to today, is notorious
for being high setting fog. So that didn't really
work with the lighthouse. Yeah. Quite often,
the lighthouse was shrouded in fog, rendering
it nearly useless to the men at sea. Yeah, I
can imagine. So because it couldn't be seen and
they had just built it, they needed some type
of signal for non -visible time. So an eight
foot long cannon was purchased. Oh no. Cannon
time. A cannon. A dude named Edward Maloney was
hired to fire this cannon. So he was a retired
army sergeant at the time. And his job was to
be on staff to fire it every half hour in times
of fog. Which is like all the time. Almost all
the time. So where is this? Big seasonal. Right.
But continually firing a cannon. Did they actually
shoot something out of the cannon? Is that what
makes the sound? Okay, I don't know what makes.
Basically like a big fiery trumpet. Boom. Yeah,
just a boom. Boom, am I right? I mean, even Fort
Hayes State, if you're familiar, that's where
I'm from, but they had a cannon at the football
games, and they would fill a balloon with, I
think it was acetylene, I'm actually not sure.
Oh, my. Some flammable gas, and they would put
it down into the cannon, and the cannon faced
the crowd at a range of 100 yards. You know,
it was off. off the face of the crowd and anytime
there was a touchdown a guy with an acetylene
torch you know a welder's torch would hold it
to the hole which would ignite it and it was
it was loud i don't know if it's as loud as an
actual cannon firing like if there's a cannonball
if it's louder the charge is more or whatever
but it was loud and they do it again if they
made a field goal which is oh you know what is
it pat the field goal right after the uh you
know Sports. Yeah. Anyways, so. You're talking
to the wrong person about that. You're like,
yeah, yeah, yeah, sports ball. Yeah, that's tough.
Yeah, the point extra, yeah. Yeah, point after
touchdown. Anyways. Six to seven. So they'd fire
this cannon in times of fog. That started August
8th, 1855. So it was just months later. Yeah,
they were like, wait a minute. He sent a complaint
via a letter to the secretary of the lighthouse
board. Quote. Whoa. Oh, my gosh. End quote. The
guy firing the cannon. Because it's so often.
Because it's every 30 minutes. You can't sleep.
That doesn't make any sense. Yeah, it's like,
are you wanting me to work 24 -7? That doesn't
make any sense. Do you lay next to the cannon?
At least he cares so much that he's like, I have
to fire this 24 -7. So somebody needs to come
help me. I'm surprised he doesn't walk off the
job. Well, yeah, but people die. So he's firing
this cannon. Soon after this letter, an assistant
was hired to provide some relief for Sergeant
Maloney. Okay. Sergeant Maloney also sounds like
a character from a show. Like because it's so
close to Maloney. Or a cat's name. Sergeant Maloney.
That's what we should name our next cat. Sergeant.
Maloney. Alas, all the effort that went into
firing the cannon was in vain. As mariners reported,
it was inaudible from the water. A cannon. An
eight -foot cannon. So, and, you know. I don't
know if that means all the time or when it was
stormy. But I remember us doing a history boo
one time that talked about how high -pitched
notes traveled better in air. Is that true? I
thought it was low. Because we had the bi -tone.
No, piano. They said there was someone playing
piano. Oh, and they could hear it. No, I can't.
Anyways, so he was fed up. Mr. Maloney. Yeah.
Sergeant, excuse me. Okay, my job's actually
useless and I'm tired. He resigned one year from
when he started. Oh, that's crazy. That's a long
time. I would not have lasted a year. And I don't
know if the fog is all year round. No. Okay.
No. I'm not used to being the support. So he
retired. So that cannon was replaced with the
West Coast. Oh, excuse me. It was the West Coast
first fog signal. Oh. That cannon. Really? Yes.
And it was replaced by a mechanically struck
bell, which was installed near the lighthouse.
You know how pissed he had to have been? Maloney
had to have been like, you wait until I resign?
It's like I've reached my absolute limit, and
then you... His job was not to be there to tend
to Bell. His job was to fire a cannon because
he was an army sergeant. Like, this guy won't
kill himself. But it wasn't even useful. That's
the problem. If it were doing a damn good job,
then it would be worth it. But it wasn't even
worth it. Yep. Yep. So mechanically struck Bell.
Kind of cool. So time goes by, 20 years, 1870s.
It was clear that the fog signal in the lighthouse
should be relocated to the southwestern tip of
Point Bonita. where they would be at a lower
elevation to better serve the mariners. The whole
lighthouse or the fog signal? The fog signal
and lighthouse should both be moved. Whoa. Because
they were picked on this highest point, and I
think this was the north side, so ships were
coming from the north, but they were trying to
get to the south to get into the cove. You want
to know when to stop from, stop, yeah. And it
was lower over there. So remember, though, this
is a rock, so there's a couple interesting things.
They noted that these were Chinese workers that
did a lot of this work. I don't know how that's
relevant, but they noted it. Against their will?
I don't know. Railroad workers. Probably not.
But there was a narrow path that was carved into
the rocky point. What? Oh, sorry. The rocky point.
Yeah, I know. Just crazy. And they made a landing
platform for supplies. A railway. With a 45 degree
incline, which is really steep. For anyone who
wants to know, that's one for one slope. They
made a railroad for this? To load supplies, to
get them up. Do you think that that's normal?
Well, we've seen it a couple times now. Oh, really?
Yeah. I only remember when they would make kilns
to bake bricks on site to use in Lighthouse,
which I guess alone, if they're willing to go
that crazy, it's not that crazy that they would
build a railway for supplies. I mean, we even
do that today. We don't make bricks on site,
but we make concrete. If the project is big enough,
they actually build a concrete plant on site
to make concrete. Okay, I didn't know that. Pretty
cool. Crazy. Anyways, so there's a 45 -degree
angle on this railroad. That's wild. And a platform
to a path. Can you imagine how hard it had to...
I wish we had video. Emily's pumping her arms
in a circular motion as if she is a locomotive.
Bigger and bigger, because somehow... I was feeling,
I was like, channel the locomotive. Channel it.
These people are going to be like, how many drinks
in are they? Zero. One coffee. Okay, so a steam
-powered winch. pulled the cart that contained
the supplies up this 45 -degree thing to the
landing. What is it? A winch? Steam -powered
winch. So a winch is a mechanically driven pulley.
It rotates and it collects cable. I wouldn't
say chain, but I'll say cable around a spool.
So there can even be winches on trucks, like
on pickup trucks. You can put a winch on the
front. So if you get stuck, you can hook it to
a tree. So it would let out? It would just pretty
much go from point A to point B back and forth?
Yeah. It would let out to let the cart down to
the water and then pull it back up. And the pulling
is where a lot of the work is because gravity
helps with the other way around. But it would
pull small cars filled with supplies and construction
materials up the track. Cute. Very dangerous.
And then, you know, during this construction,
one section of the rocky face was impenetrable.
It was just super hard. They just couldn't carve
the path they wanted to pass. So they actually
made a wooden walkway that skirted that portion
as a cliff edge. Oh. Now, today, that's not there
anymore because they tunneled through the rock.
They got through the hard part. Which is where
those Chinese gentlemen, I assume gentlemen,
came in to. literally tunnel and it's still stable
you can still walk through it so on your little
your little hike down uh it's the doorway i talked
about yeah opens to this tunnel i want to go
so we'll look at it we got to look at a video
but we'll do it at the end so there was a in
1872 there was a steam fog siren that commenced
operation which is pretty cool spooky um but
two years later it was undermined by a landslide
Oh, no. Landslide. This is so interesting. I
feel like there's a lot of little lighthouse
things that we haven't talked about, like landslides.
I don't think we've encountered a landslide.
No, I don't think so. So the point was cut down
25 feet to provide a more secure site for the
new signal. So they're going through this whole
deal. Wow. It was deactivated two years later
in 1874, resumed its operation in its new home.
So they demoed and moved it because it wasn't
that it collapsed, but being undercut meant the
land below it fell away, and so it was going
to probably collapse. So I just can't believe
it. But because of the extra work and this little
more distance that they had to go, they brought
on a second and third assistant keepers in the
1870s. So a full house, four people. Do they
have families? Oh, cool. They do have families.
There were several families out there. Look at
that bridge. I didn't realize the bridge was
so close to the lighthouse. It's so cute. It's
close to the lighthouse, and we're going to see
some really high -resolution new photos at the
end from various travelers and bloggers. It's
quite a precarious place to be. We'll see up
close. I wouldn't have imagined landslides being
a problem when everything's rocky, you know?
Whatever they built on. So the new lighthouse.
The second location, when in operation 1877,
everything from the lower balcony up is the original
1855 tower. Lower balcony, like up towards the
top of the lighthouse? Okay. Yeah, so not the
base, but everything else, which included the
Fresnel lens, so it's the same, the original
still, and eagle -shaped rain spouts, which I
could not find a picture of. No! But I bet they're
still there. That's so cool. Yeah. I love it
when they have beautiful architectural touches.
Like, which lighthouse was it? So many. Maybe
Nubble. But one of the lighthouses had miniature
versions of it. Oh, yeah. On the rail. Little
brass versions of the lighthouse. So good. Pretty
cool. Thank you. Whoever was like, let's just
spend the extra money to make it cool. Thank
you for that. Just whatever. Just do it. No big
deal. For real. Really cool. Eagles, that's awesome.
Yeah, so the new lighthouse in this placement
that you see, it's 124 feet above sea, so it's
180 feet lower than the predecessor. That's crazy.
So very different location, yeah. And even, that's
still really high. So how tall is the new tower?
Like, did they chop it? I think it was the same
height. I think they just rebuilt. Because they
don't mention that it's different. Okay. It seems
low, though. Yeah, it looks more squat than 60.
It might be lower than 60, but I actually don't
have that figure right now. Yeah, but like...
Let's see. Also, compared to the bridge and everything,
maybe it is. You know, we've talked many times
about the tower height. Yeah. Like how do you
discern? Yeah. So, so it's a 33 foot tall tower,
the focal plane. Oh. But the focal plane is 124
feet above sea level. Okay. So it's smaller and
it's, that makes sense. Cause as you're going
to see it in these photos, it doesn't look very
much taller than the structure next to it. Cute.
Fun fact. John Briarcliff Brown was one of the
keepers there. He went through several positions,
so he was promoted multiple times. He was serving
as the head keeper when the new lighthouse was
built. So over his career there, which was about
30 years, Brown and his assistants were credited
with saving over 40 lives. Oh, my. So several
shipwrecks that I have some notes here. It looks
very treacherous. There's one story. I won't
go into detail, but two boats were being pulled
by a tugboat into the bay. One of them had chlorine
gas. Oh, my gosh. Which they said if that ship
had wrecked, so they became disconnected from
the tugboat somehow. Oh, can you imagine the
fear? They said like 40 -foot swells were going
on. I'd be like, I'm out of here. If that ship
had wrecked. This is in 79? 19 or 18? Ignore
that. I don't know when this was. But if that
ship had wrecked, that gas would have been released,
and they would have had to evacuate the entire
city of San Francisco. I think it was like 700
,000 people. I think this is 79. Anyways, and
then the other boat had beer and lumber, which
it did hit the rocks, and the lumber and beer
could not be saved. If we had to pick one, I
suppose it's the beer that could go. But it is
a shame. Anyways, so shout out to Brown and his
assistants. 40 Lives. Briarcliff. And there was
a bunch of ship owners and merchants that got
together, I think at his retirement. It's hard
to say. But they got together at the Office of
the Collectors of Customs. So like shipping folks.
In 1896 and presented him with a gold -headed
cane. Pretty sick. Awesome. Yeah. Gold -headed
cane. The same year. What? Just like a knob.
That's all I have. Okay. Gold -headed cane. Probably
the grip is gold. Yeah. That's what my grandpa
had. We have it here. It's pretty cool. That's
cool. Wow. I was just thinking, I was hoping
you were going to say gold eagle -headed cane.
Yeah. You know, to match. California bear or
eagles from the spouts or a lighthouse. Ow, that
would be kind of painful. Assuming you had to
use it. Yeah. If you're actually using it for
assistance. Yeah. Which I bet he was. Probably.
That's a pretty unique thing. That was the time
in which everybody had canes. It was fashionable.
Yeah. You're just like. Can you imagine getting
a cane now? Like for our wedding present or something?
I'd be like, why? We got you a cane. It's a fine
mahogany. Fine mahogany. It's like, can I sell
it? Here's another. Okay, sorry. What? I was
just going to go in deeper. Go for it. No. It
was more for the moment thing. What were you
saying? There's another story of rescue I'd like
to share. The day after Christmas, 1896. That
was a bad time for a rescue. Why? Because you're
all like. Tis the season. Because it's reality
check. She gave me a very stern look. Okay. Keeper
George D. Cobb with two Bs. Cobb Salad. Yep.
That was his name after him. He was on duty amid
rain squalls and gale wind when he saw a sailboat
capsize off of the point, sending its three occupants
into turbulent water. Oh, no. No doubt they were
celebrating Christmas. I'm sure. Cobb reacted
immediately. and soon he had successfully launched
the station's rowboat, life -saving station here,
by the way. I forgot to say that. Upon reaching
the sailboat, because of all this, life -saving
station, he found two unconscious men in the
water. Oh my gosh. Which is impressive that he
pulled them aboard, because they're blacked.
Yeah. Wait, they were... Unconscious. Unconscious,
but not blacked, like drunken? Blacked out. Okay.
Unconscious. Anyways. That is crazy. The third
victim, cut and bleeding profusely, was soon
found among some nearby rocks. Cobb succeeded
in pulling him aboard as well. Among the rocks?
This is crazy. Who are these men? Is this average
or is this exceptional? I can't even stand up
on a paddleboard. I've never even tried. This
guy's pulling men onto a boat during a storm.
Rocks! So all three of them survived. That's
crazy. It's crazy. And he was awarded, Cobb was
awarded the Life Saving Services Silver Medal
for his heroic rescue. Love that. This accident
further punctuated the need for a life -saving
station. I mistimed this, sorry. On the northern
side of the Golden Gate. And such a station was
established at Point Bonita, 1899. Cool. So this
was kind of a... So Cobb was in charge of the
life -saving station. At the time, he was a keeper.
Oh. It sounds like. And then they drove the need
for a licensing station. You may remember 1899,
shortly after that was 1906. Only seven years.
In history, it was pretty short. Do you remember
what happened that year? No. In San Francisco.
Earthquake. Massive earthquake. Big fires. Big
boy. Yeah. Right? Huge. Okay. Which we've talked
about, and you should go back and listen to East
Brother Light and also Alcatraz Island Light.
Any other San Francisco I'm forgetting? No, that
was it. So far. There's more to cover. There's
lots written here, but because we talked about
it, I just wanted to read the logbook entry.
Oh, I love the logbook entries. Quote, terrible
earthquake occurred at 5 .13 a .m., doing considerable
damage to the assistant's quarters. Oh, no. Shaking
the gable ends out, which I don't know what that
means, but something not good, and cracking it
so badly. that it was difficulty that the families
were taken out without injury to their person.
I'm shocked by that. The chimneys were shaken
to pieces. The keeper's quarters were given a
terrible shaking. The doors were all jammed,
so the keeper had to take his family out through
the window. I didn't even think about that. The
frame of the building was... Shifted so much,
they can't even get out. Yep. Whoa. Crazy. That
is crazy. Can you imagine the earth? bucking.
I can't imagine the chimney collapsing. I think
of that as the strongest part of a house. Yeah.
Wow. She gone. She gone. So, because it's California,
two years later, a double dwelling was finished
to replace that one. Two years? Where were they
staying? I actually don't know where they stayed
in that meantime. I bet they squished all together.
I think it said they were all like, yeah, squished
together in one of the structures. That stinks.
For two years? And it's the whole family too.
It's not just the guys. It's not just the bros
hanging. Yep. Point Menina Lighthouse 1955 on
the screen now, if you'd like to see that. So
what is this little bridge for? It's just that
the ground went down a little. So that's the
formation of the island and you need to be able
to walk across it. And if you absolutely die
left or right, it's super steep. Oh. And that's
actually going to come up right now. I guess
I would have thought that they would just like
install. This is probably. This is probably a
lot bigger than I'm thinking it is. I'm like,
why don't you just put stairs up and down? It
probably doesn't make sense. Definitely over
100 feet. You don't want to walk. No, no, no.
You might die. Right, I just thought. And they're
like, look at the bridge in the background. Well,
because. Golden Gate Bridge. Yeah, in my head,
that's what I'm thinking of is like there's water
underneath. You have no choice but to build a
bridge. I'm like, what? They have land right
there. But now I see. It's to scale. It's not
to scale in my eyes. So, I don't know. A new
keeper's residence was built, of course, on the
eastern end of the suspension bridge, which...
Like, is it on the lighthouse side or is it on
the non -lighthouse side? I'm just going to keep
reading. This fly is fucking... I feel like I'm
taking crazy pills. He's going back around. So
the new residence was where the former fog signal
had stood. Oh. And that new residence was for
the assistant keepers. Okay. Although the keeper
assigned to the dwelling no longer had to make
a lengthy journey to reach the lighthouse, he
was faced with other challenges. Okay. Keeper
Alexander Martin, what another good name. Very
good. Who lived in the dwelling with his wife
and young children, built harnesses to tether
his children so that when they played outside,
for when they played outside. The foresight was
prudent as a daughter named Dorothy was once
found dangling over a cliff in her harness. Oh
my gosh. Unfortunately, no such restraint was
provided for the family cat who fell to the water
below. No. Why would they put that in there?
Facts. Facts. Very sad history. Rest in peace.
They didn't even name the cat. I'm sure they
did, but they just don't mention it in here.
History did not name the cat. Facts. Facts my
ass. So just want to put that out there. Can't
put a cat on a leash. If any of you didn't know
that, you can't do it. And I learned that. Snap
their necks. I thought, well, there you go crazy.
Snap their necks. That's why you can't. Because
a dog has all this neck muscle. So when it pulls,
like the worst that happens is he's like, cats
will snap their necks. That's why. their collars
have safety releases. It's because if they get
their collar caught on like a bush or something,
they will kill themselves trying to get out.
They have weak necks. So they're meant to be
in the barn. Yeah, no collars, no leashes. No
houses. No, but they're in here, no leashes.
Yeah, you have to keep them inside. Anyways,
December 11th of 1931, we're taking a jump just
to another notable time. The fog signal. which,
along with the light, had been electrified five
years prior, was placed in operation for two
and a half hours. This would not have been noteworthy
if it had been on the account of fog, but it
was due to heavy fall of snow. Cute. Yeah, huge
for California. Yeah. The Lighthouse Service
Bulletin noted that this was believed to be the
first time that snowfall in the bay had required
the sounding of a fog signal. Amazing. I love
that. Can you imagine how whimsical it would
be? This fly. You got it, though. There hasn't
been a fly all summer long. We've never had a
fly bugging us down here. There was a radio beacon
added. Bugging us? Hit the button. Hit it. Hit
it. Yeah. What were you thinking? I would have
gone with the, no. Oh. Third try's a charm. Anyways,
Radio Beacon was added in 1938, which jibes with
a lot of other history lighthouses. So the lighthouse,
as we see it, could be accessed until 1940 by
foot. Oh. So you could go see it. Erosion cut
a gap in the trail near the lighthouse. Oh, shoot.
And for a period of time, a breeches buoy was
actually set up to permit access. What? Yeah.
Which is insane. Can you imagine? You'd have
to have balls of steel to be like, well, let's
go see the lighthouse. And then it's like, climb
in, and I'm going to... I have a feeling regular
civilians didn't use it. I think it was for maintenance
and stuff. But even so, they're like, go out
to the radio beacon. It's not working. You've
got to put on these breeches that are built into
a buoy in case you fall to the ocean 100 feet
below. Anyways, if you don't know what we're
talking about, look up. my last episode where
we talked about the Lyle gun, which was a cannon
that shoots this weighted line. Anyways, and
then you put on these pants and they, yeah, look
it up. Breaches buoy. Look at it. Excellent story.
Yep. Do you know what episode that would have
been? Four, 81. 81. 81. Yeah. So. Vader abode.
In 1954, a suspension bridge, which appropriately
mirrored the style of the Golden Gate Bridge.
was built over this chasm. Oh, I see. There you
go. So this was all before this little bridge
happened. Yes. And you see the erosion and whatnot.
It was probably all relatively level. Yeah. And
they might have even carved it to be a path.
But then, you know, they're like, let's throw
a bridge on it. So this bridge, I'm just going
to say an aside. 1954 it was built. I forgot
the contractor. I deleted their name, I think.
It lasted until 2014. I don't know. 2024. Wait,
what? It's gone? Well, it's still there, but
it's in a point where it needs repair, where
they're not letting people cross it anymore.
Okay. Wow, that's a long time. That's almost
like 75 years. It's over 75 years. But I'll say...
Math is so hard. 70 years. I'll say some of these
pictures I've seen... visiting pobo is kind of
a thing to do like walking trails visiting california
taking photos and so i hate to say that i'm from
kansas it's a lot of people and i wonder if the
bridge has been overly used and weighed from
people they didn't expect so much foot traffic
i mean it wasn't yeah it wasn't a tourist attraction
yeah it became one so It's so cute. Like this
tiny bridge with the Golden Gate Bridge in the
background. It's like, aww. So cute. I forgot
about this detail. So after the Federal Highway
Administration report concluded that the rusting
bridge posed a danger to visiting public, it
was closed in 2010. Work on a new bridge of a
similar design began in 2011. The new bridge
allowed public access to the lighthouse to resume
in 2012. The price tag for this work, which was...
Built by Flatiron West of Benica. Okay. Benicia.
B -E -N -I -C -I -A was around a million dollars.
For a little bridge? Yes. Construction's insane.
That's crazy. And that was back in the good old
days when coffee still cost $5. Now it's $10.
Anyways. $5 already. $4. You know what I'm saying.
$3. All right, hear me out. That was 2012, and
it's 2024 when it's no longer walkable? It needs
repair? Could have been something. Weather happened.
But the last bridge lasted 60 years, we'll say.
Yeah, a million -dollar bridge, and it only lasts
a little over a decade. Yeah, let's do better.
That doesn't make any sense. Flatiron West. I'd
be upset with that. I'd be like, where'd my money
go? Yeah. Out the window. That's where. Out the
window. He didn't even know. So here we are in
1979. The two barges I told you about, the Golden
Gate. The one that was carrying the beer was
called the Kona, K -O -N -A. Anyways, so Point
Bonita is interesting. It was the last manned
lighthouse on the California coast. Wow. Mark
Van Buskirk, the last head keeper, who at the
time was living on the Coast Guard housing. So
the Coast Guard took over. Yeah. Of course, always
same history. Constructed, it was at the former
life -saving station. He left in 1981. Whoa.
Yeah, that is really late. And he left a quote.
I think he was interviewed. He said, people see
the lighthouse and the waves breaking around
the rocks and the sunset, and they think, I wish
I was stationed out there. Then they get stationed
out here, and it's a different story. There's
not a whole lot to do. Yeah. Coast Guardsmen.
They said, we maintain the grounds, make sure
the grass is mowed, and watch the fog. Grass?
What grass? There's grass somewhere. Oh, I want
to see a modern picture of this place. Also,
the life -saving station is not pictured. I think
that's where they were living. Oh, I see. So
not quite at this location. They had to make
their way up here for stuff. And they said this
is a station where you have to find work to do.
Keep yourself busy. Surf. It's now been adopted,
and it's one of my big sources today, for both
images and content by the Golden Gate National
Recreation Area. So it's within the National
Park Service domain. And the Coast Guard continues
to maintain the light and fog signal, which is
why I believe that you can't climb it because
it's military. You can go there. You can actually
go inside that dwelling that's there. You just
can't climb the tower itself, which with this
many people around, it's probably for the best.
But yeah, August of 2024, so a year ago, the
Park Service closed the suspension bridge for
repairs. I hope it opens again. Over the life
of Point Bonita or Pabot, it's had four light
signatures. I couldn't find all four. But the
first was constant, just steady. Yeah. Second
order. And then the last, which is still current,
is three seconds on, one second off. Okay. So
pretty active. You know, some lighthousees you
have to kind of wait for a while to see the pattern.
So it's kind of fun. But it still has its lens
up there? It does. That's pretty nice. And I'll
show you some images now. So also I just found
this in the National Park Service image. I wanted
to show this. How beautiful is this home? Look
at that. This was built for the steam siren fog
signal. What? 1874 this house was built. Structure
was converted to a residence for the lighthouse
keeper in 1906. Look at all the fun windows.
It's beautiful. I don't even know how to describe
it. If you're watching YouTube. Take a look.
There's a picture of the signal today. Pretty.
The shot of the bridge, the suspension bridge.
That's crazy. Here's some visitor photos. I have
all these credited in our sources if you're interested
in seeing more from these folks. That's a really
nice picture. Yeah. This is two different photos
clearly, but you can see there's lots of green
still growing. Yeah. That is a really sketchy
piece of rock. That used to be the walking platform.
Yeah, I wouldn't go on that. The bridge, much
better. Looks very sturdy. It's a gal. I forget
her name, but she visited. Took lots of pictures.
Some of these pictures are hers. Does she have
a blog? I couldn't really tell. I couldn't get
a consistent knowledge out of it. But this is
the pathway that leads to the bridge. And then
back behind us in view is the tunnel that leads
to this pathway. Pretty cool. Honestly, lots
of good things to see. Oh, and those sources
I'll leave off screen because they're from Vader
Abode. Sorry. Forgot to update that. And we're
not going to show it. I don't think. The tunnel?
Yeah, I think we're going to look at the tunnel
on our computer. Yeah, you should just go. That's
how you get people going. Don't make them feel
like they've already seen it all before they
go. You've got to be looking forward to something
specific. Something Pacific? Something Pacific.
I would definitely go. See that? Vince, if we're
talking about hikes, that's something I would
do. Yeah, look at this. So now we're off screen,
folks. Sorry. But we're looking at. It's creepy.
What the tunnel looks like. No. I don't want
it. It's so cool. I would run through. There's
a bunch of people, so it's not going to be. Well,
like that's going to stop it from caving in?
Well, it's going to be less scary. Ghosts? Look
at that. As Emily would say, creepy, deepy. Creepy,
deepy. So, well -traveled trail. I feel that
it's unfortunate the bridge is closed. I do hope
that they reopen it. Yes. But I didn't hear anything
about that. Has the lighthouse always been white?
Was black everything? White was black. You know,
I didn't see day marks discussed in this. There
was one article that talked about what a day
mark was. Okay. I think it's always been the
same. I'll be honest with you. It looked like
it in the photos. Yeah. So I put this one together
pretty quick. I had another grand idea that I
didn't have time to do justice to. Sorry for
everyone. It happens. But it will come. I enjoyed
that. When you said Point Bonita, I wouldn't
have thought San Francisco. Point Bonita. What
comes to mind? What do you think? Like Spain?
I was kind of thinking like Owl's Head was kind
of what popped up in my brain. But anyway. I'd
love to go. All right. Anything else to add before
we sign off for the day? Nope. Thanks, everybody.
Oh, we got a nice message from... I didn't write
down her name. But she was just saying that she
really loved our podcast. And she and her husband,
I think, really enjoy listening to us. And they're
excited for us to get married. Really nice. So
am I doing the outro? Go for it. Okay. Well,
just thank you for being here. And we'll catch
you next time on The Lighthouse.