Posted on 01/14/2009 8:23:00 PM PST by Coleus
For Margery and John Geddes, a typical walk with their three dogs often ends at the icon of their neighborhood, the towering Barnegat Lighthouse. But now, something has changed about Old Barney, the red-and-white icon that has stood perched at the northernmost tip of Long Beach Island since 1858. Its beacon extinguished 82 years ago, the 163-foot brick structure now flashes an intense beam of light out the glass windows. Last night it was lit up 150 years to the day it first started guiding ships to safety along a treacherous point of land.
The Geddeses joined thousands of people yesterday to witness the revival of one of New Jersey's most beloved coastal images. Bundled up against the frigid temperatures, they parked cars anywhere they could in and around the park to witness the spectacle. "This is a historical moment, so why not?" said Anita Salgueiro, who came from Little Egg Harbor with seven members of her family, including her daughter and grandchildren. "It's good for the children."
Replacing two shorter lighthouses before it, the Barnegat Lighthouse was first lit on New Years Day in 1859 to great fanfare and its relighting yesterday went in similar style. "It fills people's hearts with joy," said Margery Geddes, a 73-year-old resident of the borough of Barnegat Light. "It's like a magnet. It's a very special and emotional time." Finding lightships more effective at preventing shipwrecks, the U.S. Lighthouse Service extinguished Old Barney's beacon -- a Fresnel lens -- in 1927. The darkened tower was used as a lookout spot during World War II, but the structure was decommissioned in 1944 before it was taken over by the state in 1954.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
The subject of two major renovations, the lighthouse is the centerpiece of the most popular state park in New Jersey, attracting half a million visitors annually.
It was from those tourists that the idea to relight Old Barney was born. Time after time, visitors asked if the lighthouse was operational. Docents responded with the same answer: the 250-watt incandescent bulb installed 15 years ago illuminated the top for decorative effect, but didn’t project the beam of light characteristic of lighthouses.
Friends of Barnegat Lighthouse State Park, a group of volunteers that raised money for various projects in the park, decided to change that. Because a lighthouse beacon is considered an aid to navigation, the group first had to get permission from the U.S. Coast Guard.
The original lens, which sits in a local historical society, weighs 3 tons and cost $15,000. The new lens, a VRB-25 light made in New Zealand by Vega Industries Ltd., weighs 42 pounds and cost $15,000. It runs on electricity and has a battery backup.
Angelo Rinaldi, president of the friends group, said lighthouses are just as popular today as they were more than a century ago, but for different reasons. “When the U.S. was a seafaring country, you needed lighthouses. Today you don’t need them,” he said. “People think of lighthouses more as a beacon of hope, a sign of the past.” The relighting of Old Barney has attracted nationwide attention. Its sesquicentennial celebration attracted visitors from upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland. Donations have come from as far as California, Rinaldi said.
Russell Wilson, superintendent of Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina, called Rinaldi to inquire about the type of lens to be used. “It’s terrific they have a friends group that raised money to relight the lighthouse,” said Wilson, superintendent at Sandy Hook from 2002 to 2004. “Lighthouses have a following and it’s a good thing they have a following that can provide this support.”
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Childhood to teen years
my days in the wilderness
the youth hearing a different drummer
being drummed and harassed by his peers
enter the twenties always returning
to reconnect
Baccalaureate Comprehensive Final Exam
one year later back again
This time to recover from the horror of the previous nights work
The night I worked the front desk of a hotel when a guest commited suicide
Back again a few months later
Watching the Sunrise-guitar in hand
There to extinguish the torch I carried
for a girl who got married that very morning in Bernardsville
the years and visits continued
Seems I always had to go there to celebrate
or to regroup
Bringing a good friend there to hang out with
he and his pretty sisters
I couldn't stay away for long
even when I left for Washington
back to visit my retired father
and again at the endpoint of a West-East motorcycle ride
All etched and inscribed in my memory
nice to know that although the image looking back at me in the rear view mirror
has changed
What is seen in the Driver's side window
Hasn't
"Life's Beacon" 01-14-09 StarfireIV
I’ve been privileged to spend a week on LBI for the past several years, beutiful place. No long history like others. Will look forward to driving up to see the Barney lit up at night.
A toast to your eloquence, sir.
Thats nice. Thanks.
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