Twin Lights of Navesink - Your Passport to Adventure - Highlands, NJ
N 40° 23.777 W 073° 59.143
18T E 586077 N 4472236
Twin Lights is situated 200 feet above sea level in Highlands, NJ. It overlooks the Shrewsbury River, Sandy Hook, Raritan Bay, N.Y. skyline and the Atlantic Ocean. Twin Lights has been used as an aid to navigation over the coastal waters since 1828.
Waymark Code: WM6M5Z
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 06/19/2009
Views: 11
Passport Program Information
The NJ Parks and Forests Service came out with a passport book for collecting stamps for visiting a select sampling of our states parks, forests and historic sites. Many fine places did not make the list but many beautiful and culturally important sites did make the list so I suppose it all evens out in the end. The passport book is divided into 3 sections, north, central and south Jersey. This stamp and Twin Lights of Navesink represent the ninth listing for Central New Jersey. If it was not for the release of a puzzle cache a few years ago and my obsession at the time for first to finds, I would never have visited all 24 sites of central and southern NJ. The puzzle cache is called Passport To Adventure (Central Jersey Challenge) and can be found HERE. The stamp and the passport books are free. To find out more about our fabulous passport program please visit HERE.
Twin Lights of Navesink
The stamp in the passport shows a close-up of the southern tower. I was able to retrieve the stamp at a welcome desk situated at the bottom of the north tower. There was a lady at the desk who was very helpful. The page reads, "Rising 200 feet above the Atlantic Ocean like a medieval castle, Twin Lights lighthouse has stood guard over the entrance of New York Harbor since 1828. Enjoy a climb up the 64 steps of the north tower for a spectacular view, or check out the massive, clamshell-shaped Fresnel lens that once occupied the south tower."
The current brownstone structure was built in 1862 and served as the primary seacoast light marking the entrance to New York Harbor. The towers are not identical twins; the south tower is square and the north is octagonal. This 1862 structure replaced an earlier twin tower lighthouse. Inventor Guglielmo Marconi demonstrated the nation's first wireless telegraph station here. It was capable of sending and receiving messages on a regular commercial basis. The best part is this lighthouse (north) is part of the annual Lighthouse Challenge in October.
