Encyclopedia > The Stepping Stones Lighthouse New York
Stepping Stones Lighthouse is a very old Victorian-style lighthouse built on a series of rocky reefs in Long Island Sound, in Nassau County, New York. The lighthouse is square-shaped and made of red brick, standing one-and-a-half stories high. The Hudson-Athens Lighthouse (http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=677) is a virtual twin of this structure.
It was originally lit in 1877, and automated in 1967. It remains in use today, under the management of the United States Coast Guard. It is not open to the public. The lighthouse is located at 40° 49′ 28′′ N, 73° 46′ 29′′ W, shows an occulting green light 46 feet above the water, with an 8 mile visible range. It is light list (http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pubs/LightLists/LightLists.htm) number 21505.
The reef upon which it sits got its name from ancient Siwanoy (Minnefords) Native American legends. According to these legends the tribe used warriors and medicine and magic to chase the Devil out of present-day Westchester County, New York onto City Island (formerly Greater Minneford Island), surrounding him at Belden Point. The Devil then picked up huge boulders lying there and tossed them into Long Island Sound, and used them as stepping stones to make his escape. The natives gave the rocks the name "the Devil's Stepping Stones" and later it was dropped to just the Stepping Stones.
The lighthouse is the residence of the village constable.
A proper lighthouse, a 62 ft (19 m) pyramidal skeletal tower, was finally built in 1890, but replaced in 1905 by a 35 ft (11 m) brick tower because the taller light was found to be in the line of fire of the fort's batteries.
The NewYork Historic House Trust held a ceremony to relight the lighthouse on September 19, 2002.
NEWYORK -- For a landlubber like me, whose ideal boating excursion must include the illusion that it would be possible to swim to land in an emergency, the NewYork Water Taxi was tempting.
During a recent visit to NewYork, I thought an offshore view might...
The bad news is the Water Taxi is not actually at Pier 84, the inaccurate address that appears on all its printed materials.
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