Twin Lights Of Navesink - New Jersey - State/Provincial Parks on Waymarking.com

The Twin Lights State Historic Site is located in Highlands New Jersey on the hill overlooking Sandy Hook. It overlooks the Shrewsbury River, Sandy Hook, Raritan Bay, New York skyline and the Atlantic Ocean. From this site you can see Long Island, Manhattan Island, New York, and much of the New Jersey coast. The lighthouse is situated 200 feet above sea level The current lighthouse was erected in 1862; however, the site has been the home of a lighthouse since the early 1700's. Twin Lights has been used as an aid to navigation over the coastal waters of NJ since 1828. It was used as the primary lighthouse for New York Harbor and was known as the best and the brightest light in North America. The current lighthouse was built in 1862 and replaced the earlier lights which were beginning to deteriorate. There is a cannon on display that was unearthed during a renovation project and was inscribed by one of the early caretakers of the site. Twin Lights no longer guides ships into New York Harbor, but it
stands as a formidable reminder of the important role lighthouses
played in the maritime history of this country. Twin Lights is listed
on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

Park Type: Day Use Activities: The State of New Jersey Park system acquired Twin Lights from the Borough of Highlands in 1962, and opened it as a museum. Today, visitors can tour the lighthouse, climb the North Tower for a breathtaking view of the Atlantic Ocean, visit the exhibit gallery, and see the 9 foot bivalve lens on display in the generator building. Park Fees: Not listed Background: Twin Lights holds a prominent place in American maritime history as the site of the first use of the Fresnel Lens. In 1841, two of these revolutionary lighthouse lenses were installed: a TWIN LIGHTS of the Navesink “for to the Northward off us we saw high Hills… This is a very good land to fall with, and a pleasant land to see.” –robert juet, explorer, 1609 “first-order” light in the South Tower and a “second-order” light in the North Tower. Developed by French physicist Augustine Fresnel, they were far superior to any navigational lighting apparatus being used in the United States at that time. The lenses resembled glass beehives and consisted of a series of prisms that surrounded a central light source. They were classified into seven sizes called orders. Seacoast lights like Twin Lights usually received a first or second order lens. With the installation of these Fresnel lenses, Twin Lights became the best coastal lighthouse in America. An enormous electric-arc bivalve lens, measuring nine feet in diameter, replaced the South Tower beehive light in 1898. In order to illuminate this new lens, the Lighthouse Service built an electric generator house on site. It was one of the brightest navigational lights ever used in the United States. The beacon was visible for 22 miles and, under certain conditions could be seen reflecting in the night sky seventy miles away. The light was so bright that the North Tower was taken out of service not to be re-lit until 1962, when a smaller commemorative light was placed there. Date Established?: 1962 Link to Park: [Web Link] Additional Entrance Points: Not Listed

Visit Instructions:
To log a visit to a waymark in this category, please include the following ...
1. A picture you took at the park.
2. Your favorite activity at the park.
3. How do you like the park.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   11/22/2009 accbd visited it 11/16/2008 Keldar5 visited it 05/16/2008 Ericles visited it 10/21/2007 angryEMT visited it 05/16/2007 Math Teacher visited it 02/01/2007 PaHawkeye visited it

View all visits/logs