Point Bonita Lighthouse is a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

located at Point Bonita at the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

entrance in the

Marin Headlands The Marin Headlands are a hilly peninsula at the southernmost end of Marin County, California, United States, located just north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge, which connects the two counties and peninsulas. The entire area is p ...

. Point Bonita was the last staffed lighthouse on the California coast. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1991.

History

More than 300 boats ran aground near the Golden Gate during the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

years, requiring a lighthouse. The original Point Bonita Lighthouse, a brick tower, was built in 1855 at above sea level with a second order

Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens (optics), lens which reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections. The simpler Dioptrics, d ...

. This was too high. Unlike the East Coast of the United States, the West Coast has dense high

fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus and is heavily influenc ...

, which leaves lower elevations clear. Since the original light was so high, it was often cloaked in

and could not be seen from the sea. As a result, the lighthouse was moved to its current location at above sea level in 1877. To access the new site, a long tunnel was hand carved through hard rock. The lighthouse had the first fog signal on the West Coast, in the form of a 24-pounder siege gun. Up until 1940 the lighthouse could be reached by a trail, but

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

caused the trail to crumble into the sea. A wooden walkway was installed, but when that became treacherous a

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

was built in 1954. This is the only lighthouse in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

which can only be reached by a suspension bridge. The suspension bridge underwent repairs in 1979 and again in 1991, but the metal components were not able to stand up to the

sea spray Sea spray consists of aerosol particles formed from the ocean, primarily by ejection into Earth's atmosphere through bursting bubbles at the air-sea interface Sea spray contains both organic matter and inorganic salts that form sea salt aeroso ...

. As a result, the suspension bridge to the light house was closed to public access on January 6, 2010. According to the

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program a ...

, the bridge, which was 56 years old, had started to

rust Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH) ...

. It was replaced by a new span which opened April 13, 2012. The new bridge construction cost a little over $1 million. It is made of tropical

hardwood Hardwood is wood from Flowering plant, angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostl ...

with steel suspension cables and attachments. The

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

currently maintains the light and fog signal.

Public access

The lighthouse is accessible to the public during limited hours (12:30–3:30 p.m.) on Sundays and Mondays, as well as on ranger-led interpretive sunset hikes, which requires a sign-up. Access to the bridge is barred at other times by a metal door on the shore end of the tunnel. The lighthouse closed in March 2020 for the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, but resumed tours two years later on February 20, 2022. The Point Bonita Suspension Bridge in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area is closing indefinitely for repairs, park officials announced on Monday. Visitors will still be able to access the half-mile trail leading to the historic landmark, but access to the lighthouse itself will be suspended. This latest closure will allow park officials to conduct a more thorough inspection of the 200-foot-long bridge, which is made of hardwood and steel suspension cables. "Wind gusts and sea spray make Point Bonita an inhospitable place for infrastructure, We don't have a timeline for its reopening yet, but we'll share updates on our website and social media." said Julian Espinoza, a spokesperson for the Golden Gate recreation area.

Gallery

In popular media

On the television show '' Murder in the First'' the lighthouse was a setting at the end of the second-season episode "Schizofrenzy". The lighthouse can be found in the video game ''

Watch Dogs 2 ''Watch Dogs 2'' is a 2016 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the sequel to 2014's '' Watch Dogs'' and the second installment in the '' Watch Dogs'' series. It was released for the PlayStation 4 ...

''.

References

External links