Absecon Lighthouse

For ships approaching Absecon Island, the coast could be difficult to read in darkness or bad weather. After years of advocacy by physician Jonathan Pitney, Congress funded a lighthouse for the northern end of the island. Construction began in 1855, and the light was first lit on January 15, 1857. At 171 feet, the tower rose above the low shoreline with a first-order Fresnel lens designed to carry its beam far out over the water.

The need was not abstract. In 1854, the ship *Powhattan* wrecked off the coast while carrying German immigrants. More than 300 people died. The disaster became one of the tragedies that strengthened calls for a lighthouse and for better protection along this stretch of New Jersey shore. Absecon Light would serve mariners for generations, with keepers climbing its cast-iron stairs to tend the lamp and maintain the lens.