New York City Excursion

October 12-15, 2023

Fire Island

Recently I had the opportunity to visit my friend Nicole in Manhattan, and we spent the weekend visiting the various lighthouses in the area. On Friday, we went out to Fire Island on Long Island and visited one of the prettiest lights on the Eastern seaboard. There's a $10 climbing fee that comes with access to a lovely museum with very knowledgable staff. The weather was perfect, and afforded a nice view of the Manhattan skyline. We spent a good half hour on the gallery swapping between watching the sound and the ocean. The beaches were empty, given it was the middle of October, and after spending some time on the lighthouse grounds we went out to sit on the beach and watch the waves.

Jeffrey's Hook

After returning to the city, we took the subway uptown to Jeffrey's Hook Lighthouse, the infamous Little Red Lighthouse that sits beneath the George Washington bridge. The journey from the street down to the water was relatively quiet and peaceful, but probably best attempted in daylight. The view of the lighthouse beneath the bridge was coupled with an absolutely lovely perspective of the downtown skyline jutting out from the Hudson, and was easily my favorite place to view the city.

Robbins Reef

On Saturday we took the express ferry to Staten Island, which affords views of one very iconic and one not so iconic light-- the Statue of Liberty (not pictured, obviously) and the Robbins Reef lighthouse. This excursion was cold, wet, and the complete opposite of miserable because it culminated in a trip to the National Lighthouse Museum, about a 5 minute walk from the ferry terminal.

Staten Island Rear Range

Staten Island's lighthouses are quite difficult to access without private transportation, something of which was slightly lacking for us, but Nicole discovered a new technology apparently called "Uber" with which we were able to penetrate the depths of the island and visit the Staten Island Rear Range lighthouse. The sister lighthouse with which the range is created remains a mystery to me. The tower was on private property in someone's backyard, so we weren't able to approach beyond the neighborhood street, but it was still an impressive and very well maintained structure. Around the corner is a Frank Lloyd Wright house, and a strange man with a large supply of business cards informed us of a Tibetan art museum also in the neighborhood, should we follow a deer trail at the end of the block. We did not investigate.

Ambrose Lightship LV87

Having returned to Manhattan, we stumbled upon by chance LV87 on our way to Pier 17. The lightship is part of the South Street Seaport Museum in Manhattan's Alphabet City (as they say) and I believe a major exhibit-- unfortunately when we arrived the museum was closed, but having visited LV101 in the past, I feel comfortable endorsing a visit should the opportunity arise.

Titanic Memorial Lighthouse

The final lighthouse we visited was the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse, a few yards away from LV87. While not an official aid to navigation, this memorial has a neat little history and a peculiar time ball attached to it. The lighthouse is absolutely dwarfed by the skyscrapers that flank it on all sides, and is one of the few times I really felt how huge of a city New York is.