A Little Red Lighthouse

Under the George Washington Bridge?

----New York for Kids Part 3----

Dear Postcard from New York Reader,

There is nothing like a visit from one's grandchildren to push your creative day planning skills into hyper mode. We’ve done all the playgrounds within a three mile radius, as well as museums and zoos in the outlying boroughs. They now wanted something different; actually, we all wanted something different.

I cannot recall which Internet link I followed, but I arrived at a site that gave me information about seven lighthouses that once guided ships up the Hudson River (the seven do not include the Statue of Liberty, possibly the best known beacon for harbor bound sailors in the world). It would take a whole day’s activity to visit them all, as they stretch up the river as far north as Hudson-Athens, but there’s one really famous one right here in New York City.

The Little Red Lighthouse sits under and slightly south of the George Washington Bridge, on a little bump in the west side of Manhattan. I presume the bump is the source of the light’s formal name: the Jeffrey's Hook Light. It was built in 1920, 10 years before the bridge was completed, and it was the second lighthouse to be erected on the site. The bridge, when opened however, rendered the small beacon “unnecessary,” and it was deactivated in 1947.

Before the light was turned out, the Jeffrey's Hook Lighthouse was immortalized in Hildegarde H. Swift’s book The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge. Millions of children who came to love the little lighthouse after reading the now timeless classic, created a public outcry at the plan to destroy it. Eventually, it was saved, and ultimately gifted to the City of New York.

So I had my objective, and our day planned. Since I thought I knew how to find the bridge, we headed out. It didn’t occur to me that a landmark whose photographs clearly show to be on the south side of the bridge, could not be approached from the south. But no matter; we were on an adventure of discovery.

After we found the streets of Washington Heights south of the bridge, a helpful woman with a baby carriage suggested we try the other side because "there was no lighthouse here!" It was true; the Henry Hudson Parkway and the other approaches to the bridge blocked every street we started down; with enthusiasm still running high, we decided to head north.

To be continued...

Henry Waxman
For Postcards from New York

Address to Remember: The Little Red Lighthouse, Fort Washington Park, 178th Street and the Henry Hudson Parkway, New York, NY 10033, dial 311 and ask for the Urban Park Ranger.

Directions: From Times Square MTA A to 175th Street. Follow directions above to the Lighthouse.

Photo by Henry Waxman

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