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Southwest Ledge Light

Around the mid-19th century New Haven, a leading port in international and coastal trade, became a booming manufacturing center. In a sense New Haven is the birthplace of modern American industry; it was in New Haven that Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin, developed new methods of manufacturing. Whitney had a factory in New Haven where muskets were mass-produced for the government.

Southwest Ledge is a dangerous rock formation about a mile offshore on the east side of the main channel into New Haven Harbor. In 1845 Fifth Auditor and Superintendent of Lights Stephen Pleasanton had recommended the building of a lighthouse at Southwest Ledge to replace the old New Haven Light at Five Mile Point, but the isolated location made the light prohibitively expensive at that time.

With improvements in lighthouse engineering, the construction of Southwest Ledge Light began in 1873. The lighthouse was one of the first of the nation to be built on a cylindrical iron foundation. This shape allowed floating ice to drift around it in winter rather than becoming trapped around the foundation.

Before it was put in place at the ledge, the superstructure of the lighthouse intended for Southwest Ledge was on display at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, with an actual lighthouse keeper maintaining a light in the tower during the exposition. As it turned out, this structure went to Delaware where it became Ship John Shoal Light, and an identical tower went to Southwest Ledge.

In the summer of 1876 the 45-foot cast-iron, wood-lined lighthouse tower was put in place, and Southwest Ledge Light became operational on January 1, 1877. On the same day the old New Haven Light, or Five Mile Point Light, was extinguished. Not long after the lighthouse was built it became the terminus for a new breakwater in New Haven Harbor.

The new lighthouse had a fourth order Fresnel lens exhibiting a fixed white light, visible for 13 miles. A Daboll fog signal was installed in 1888. In 1889 a red sector was added to the lantern to warn mariners approaching Branford Reef and Gangway Rock.

The light became an automatic beacon on August 15, 1953. Before 1953 the light was produced by kerosene. As part of the automation process power was supplied by a cable from shore at Morgan Point.

The Fresnel lens was replaced by a modern lens in 1988. The automated flashing red light and fog signal continue to serve as active aids to navigation.

The lighthouse can be seen distantly from Lighthouse Park, from New Haven's Long Wharf, and from sightseeing cruises from New Haven.

All text copyright ©2000 Jeremy D'Entremont/Coastlore Productions. All rights reserved.  No part may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmitted, in any form without prior written permission from the publisher. 

All images copyright ã 2000 by Richard Asarisi/Photoworkings.com.  All rights reserved.  No part may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmitted, in any form without prior written permission from the publisher.