Little Red Lighthouse/Jeffrey's Hook

Although extinguished ages ago, the Little Red Lighthouse is a timeless beacon of inspiration from Fort Washington Park under the Manhattan tower of the George Washington Bridge. The 40-foot structure was built in 1880 on the Sandy Hook, NJ, peninsula. Nautical technology rendered its 1,000-lb fog signal and flashing red light obsolete by 1917, and the U.S. Coast Guard pulled the plug, dismantled the structure and reassembled it on the Hudson River banks of Jeffrey's Hook in upper Manhattan. The opening of the George Washington Bridge in 1931 again stole the little lighthouse's thunder, but not its magic spell. In 1942, "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge," a children's book written by Hildegarde Swift and illustrated by Lynd Ward, rallied enough champions for the diminutive structure to dissuade the Coast Guard's wrecking ball. For over six decades since, the winsome little red tower has continued to elicit blinding smiles from visitors and passersby.

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