Is that a lighthouse? To the untrained eye, the first one looks like a very tall column tapering to the top with an old-fashioned looking streetlight at the top. Let me show off: That shape is called a Doric Column. Wait, through the binoculars, that looks like an urn at the top! And, by golly, the 22.5 feet tall bronze urn is lighted. And it flashes. With a lighted and flashing urn…so, it might be a lighthouse. After all, it’s on Lake Erie, so it really must be. Yes, it is a lighthouse in addition to a monument, and still recognized and marked as an official, and very visible navigational aid.
This is the story of two tall, nationally recognized and loved structures, sitting on or near water, which were not deliberately built to be lighthouses, but became lighthouses. Neither was ever designed or originally destined to be a lighthouse. One, however, a welcome gift to the nation on its centennial, certainly could not be regifted like an ugly Christmas tie or put in a closet and never worn. That gift caused some consternation for a while, until what seemed to be a logical solution was formulated. Another structure, also a Memorial, was immediately employed as a lighthouse, served as a lighthouse and is still considered an active and private aid to navigation. But neither were built for that reason at all. An engineering marvel for the time, some five miles from the American Canadian border rises Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial. It stands at 352 feet and is located on land overlooking Put-In-Bay, Ohio, about 100 feet from Lake Erie, one of our Great Lakes. The Memorial commemorates the American naval victory over a British fleet during the War of 1812 by Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, and celebrates, symbolically, the constant reminder of lasting peace and cooperation between Canada and the United States. The Memorial sits about five miles in sight of the long, and undefended border between the two nations. The only other undefended borders exist between contiguous European Union countries. The construction of the monument was commissioned by nine US states and is often mistaken, from afar, for a Great Lakes lighthouse. At the dedication of the Memorial in 1913, the remains of six officers from the battle, three American and three British, who died in combat and interred at the battle site itself, were ceremonially reinterred in a catafalque at the new Memorial.
That other tall monument with a lighted torch in its outstretched arm, is of course, The Statue of Liberty, assembled on Bedloe’s Island in upper New York Bay. A generous gift of the French people, it stands at 305 feet. After the dedication of the Statue by President Cleveland in October of 1886, the Statue’s torch was “assigned” to function to illuminate the path for seafarers navigating the bustling waters of New York’s harbor, and as such, was to be maintained as a lighthouse by the United States Lighthouse Board. This aggrieved assignment to the Lighthouse Board went on for fifteen contentious years until 1901, when the War Department took over and assigned the Statue to the care of Fort Hood’s Army Base on Bedloe’s island, much to the relief of the Lighthouse Board.
Why contentious? The Lighthouse Board correctly asserted and continued to maintain that the electric torch was of, “little to no navigational usefulness,” but nonetheless, was assigned the upkeep of it. “After all, it has a light,” was the bureaucratic answer. Being the Lighthouse Board, and used to challenges, the Board tried every trick up their collective sleeves for twelve years to enhance it, or even, just make it work somewhat better. In defense of the Board, at the time there were more critical needs calling for building, restoring, or replacing about 300 American lighthouses during those last twenty-five years of the 19th century.
Did they receive any help? Not much. Here’s an example: During that time, the US Army Corp of Engineers officers suggested drilling holes in the glass of the torch to improve the “visibility” of its light. That was recognized and dismissed by the Lighthouse Board as counterproductive as far as keeping saltwater air away from the lantern room ‘s delicate mechanism. But it was done anyway, on an “experimental basis,” as were other modifications to the torch. On a side note, in preparation for the Statue’s centennial in 1986, the torch had to be completely replaced a year before in1985. A specialist mechanic-“electrician” was assigned in 1887 as its keeper by the Lighthouse Board. Because of his special status, he was, for a time, the highest paid US Lighthouse Service keeper. The statue eventually became the responsibility of the US Army command stationed at Fort Wood at Bedloe’s Island, now Liberty Island. In later years, the Statue was assigned to the Nation Park Service to become the National Monument it is today.
