Ocean Trash and the Five Gyres

Plastic Marine Debris

The legendary Pacific Garbage Patch, or trash vortex, lies in a region of the North Pacific Ocean where the northern jet stream and the southern trade winds, flowing in opposite directions, create an immense, gently rotating whirlpool of water called the North Pacific Gyre. The vortex traps tons of plastic garbage at its center— literally tons. That is the bad news. The slightly better news is that there is no giant island of solid garbage floating in the Pacific. There are millions of small, even microscopic, pieces of plastic floating over a roughly 5000 square km area of the Pacific. This amount has increased exponentially over the past 40 years.

Rather than an island of trash floating on the ocean, this garbage patch is composed almost entirely of tiny bits of plastic, called microplastics which can’t always be seen by the naked eye. Even satellite imagery doesn’t show a giant patch of garbage— just a humongous cloudy soup. This soup does carry larger items, such as fishing gear, shoes, buoys…

Sea of garbage in Manila Harbor--  not the Pacific Garbage Patch.
But where did this garbage go?

The reality is that nearly every piece of plastic ever made still remains on Earth, no matter whether it's been recycled, battered into microscopic bits or tossed into the ocean so it’s out of sight. While many different types of trash enter the ocean, plastics make up the majority of marine debris for two reasons. First, it’s cheap and easy to shape— an economical and workable material. And worse, plastic does not biodegrade so it lasts forever.  

How big is the problem?

While the garbage patch in the North Pacific Gyre has received a lot of attention because of its size (estimated to be twice the size of Texas) , it is not the only area where marine debris can be found. Plastic debris affects waters and coastlines around the world. Animals frequently become entangled in large pieces of debris, and can be cut, drowned, or slowed down by dragging the extra weight. Additionally, heavy gear, such as fishing nets, can damage reefs and other important habitats.

Gyres rotate in a clockwise direction in the Northern hemisphere 
and counter-clockwise in the Southern hemisphere. 

The black square shows the approximate location of the 

Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Courtesy 5 Gyres Institute.

An estimated 11 million tons (and growing) of floating plastic covers an area 700 miles northeast of the Hawaiian Island chain to 1,000 miles from the coast of California, and there are 5 major gyres in the oceans worldwide, all of which are believed to contain plastic debris which resists photochemical, biological and chemical degradation.  Research has outlined the life cycle of ocean plastic. It collects in the world's five large gyres then, as the plastic fragments, it sinks into deeper water, where currents carry it to remote parts of the globe.

Kara Lavender Law, an oceanographer at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts who has participated in studies spanning decades of surface plankton net tows reports, "The more we look, the more we find. I was surprised that they found microfibers in every core of all the regions sampled."

Apparently plastics are ubiquitous in the ocean environment. 

How is ocean trash measured? 

Ocean trash is counted through beach surveys, computer models based on samples collected at sea, and estimates of the amount of trash entering the oceans. The process of collecting and counting is meticulous, time-consuming work. It took Marcus Eriksen, co-founder of the 5 Gyres Institute, a nonprofit ocean advocacy group, more than four years, using samples gathered from 24 survey trips, to generate his estimate that 5.25 trillion pieces of debris float on the surface.

That does not count microplastics which do not float on the surface and it fudges on the data missed because most pieces of garbage in the oceans would fit in a thimble with loads of room to spare.

Discovery and growing awareness… 

While oceanographers and others predicted the existence of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, based upon the sheer amount of plastics on land and in garbage, it was yachtsman Charles Moore who actually discover the trash vortex after competing in a race from Hawaii

Captain Charles Moore.
Courtesy Earth Island Institute.

to California. Crossing the North Pacific Gyre in 1997, Moore and his crew noticed millions of pieces of plastic floating past his ship. Charles Moore continues to raise awareness through his own environmental organization, the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. During a 2014 expedition, Moore and his team launched aerial drones, to assess the extent of the trash. According to the organization, the drones determined that there is 100 times more plastic by weight than previously measured. The team also discovered more permanent plastic features, or islands, some over 15 meters (50 feet) in length.

Those who predicted the existence of the garbage patches had noted in the past that plastic production has quadrupled since the 1980s, and that the prevalent size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is due in part to its location at the nexus of Asian Pacific population centers where manufacturing is high and refuse management is low in governing priorities. In fact, today it is estimated  that about 80% of the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from North America and Asia. Trash from the coast of North America takes about six years to reach the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, while trash from Japan and other Asian countries takes about a year.

The remaining 20% of debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from boaters,

Sea turtle entangled in "ghost net." Courtesy Wikipedia.

offshore oil rigs, and large cargo ships that dump or lose debris directly into the sea. The majority of this debris—over 700,000 tons—is plastic fishing nets. More unusual items, such as computer monitors and LEGOs, come from dropped shipping containers which provide their own shipping hazards.

Discovery and awareness have uncovered a bit of a mystery as well. There’s loads of missing plastic. Since plastics production has quadrupled since the 1980s, there should be lots more plastic floating in the oceans than counted by scientists. It’s here, but where? There is a search underway for the missing plastic.

It is highly unlikely to have evaporated, but it could be degraded to the point where it is undetectable, or it could be simply hidden from view. The seafloor beneath the Great Pacific Garbage Patch may also be an underwater trash heap. Oceanographers and ecologists recently discovered that about 70% of marine debris actually sinks to the bottom of the ocean. This begs new questions. Not only where is the missing plastic, but in what amounts and how did it get there?
   
What harm can it do?

Let’s start with marine life. Loggerhead sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellies, their favorite food. Albatrosses mistake plastic resin pellets for fish eggs and feed them to chicks, which die of starvation or ruptured organs. Seals and other marine mammals become

entangled in abandoned plastic fishing nets, which are being discarded regularly because of their low cost. Seals and other mammals often drown in these forgotten nets—a phenomenon known as “ghost fishing.”

Marine food chain, drawn by Christopher Krembs, NOAA.

Marine debris can also disturb marine food webs. As microplastics and other trash collect on or near the surface of the ocean, they block sunlight from reaching plankton and algae below. Algae and plankton are the most common autotrophs, or producers, in the marine food web. Autotrophs are organisms that can produce their own nutrients from oxygen, carbon, and sunlight. 

If algae and plankton communities are threatened, the entire food chain can suffer. Animals that feed on algae and plankton, such as fish and turtles, will have less food. If those populations decrease, there will be less food for apex predators such as tuna, sharks, and whales. Eventually, seafood becomes less available and more expensive for people as well.

Plastic has acutely affected albatrosses, which traverse ­a wide swath of the northern Pacific Ocean. On Midway Island, which comes into contact with parts of the Eastern Garbage Patch,  albatrosses give birth to 500,000 chicks every year. Two hundred thousand of them die, many of them by consuming nutrition-less plastic fed to them by their parents, who confuse it for food [source: LA Times].  

There may be consequences yet to be discovered.

What can be done? 

Despite the magnitude of the numbers, Peter Ryan, a zoologist at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, who has written about tracing the evolution of marine debris research, says the problem is solvable. "Marine debris, unlike global warming, should be an easy

Plastic Pellets

thing to deal with," he says. "We have to sort out what to do with our rubbish." Ryan began tracking debris more than 30 years ago, after a colleague recommended he study seabirds that consume floating plastic pellets. The pellets were commonly used in manufacturing back then and were routinely found in harbors and other waterways. Improvements to shipping reduced pellet spillage. Ryan says, "If you go to the beach today, you struggle to find one.We can show that in every study that looks at the North Atlantic that the amount of pellets [ingested by] seabirds has decreased over the last two decades."

On the other hand, Charles Moore, the man who discovered the vortex, says cleaning up the garbage patch would “bankrupt any country” that tried it. So far, no country has taken responsibility or funded a clean-up to any of the 5 gyres, which lie so far from their coasts.

Microbeads, found in soaps and face washes, 
are a number one source for 
microplastics (photo from gizmodo.com)

Moreover, cleaning up marine debris is not as easy as it sounds. Many microplastics are the same size as small sea animals, so nets designed to scoop up trash would catch and decimate these creatures as well. Even if we could just gather garbage, the size of the oceans makes this job overwhelming. The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program has estimated that it would take 67 ships one year to clean up less than one percent of the North Pacific Ocean.

The best option available today is to prevent the garbage patches from growing. Here are some suggestions-- and, once again, every little bit helps.

• Eliminate your use of disposable one-use plastics in favor of biodegradable, reusable substitutes: buy soap bars wrapped in paper; use fabric or paper shopping bags; stop buying single-use plastic water bottles.
• If forced to use plastics, recycle and dispose of them responsibly.
• Participate in coastal clean-ups of your local beaches, shores and waterways.

  

  Participate in coastal
  clean-ups

• Cigarette butts are one of the most ubiquitous beach and ocean pollutants— never drop them anywhere.
• Cut open plastic six-pack bottle straps and other straps that can trap marine life.
• Talk with family, friends, co-workers and anyone else who will listen about the oceans and growing menace of trash. 

I find this quote from Charles Moore inspirational: 

When we talk about solutions, we have to talk about a global reassessment of a product’s utility. Right now, a product is considered useful if it sells in the marketplace. The market drives consumption, and consumption is considered to be the be-all and end-all of utility. If people are buying it, it must be good for something. But that calculus is in need of revision.
The public is not given the information it needs to make good consumer choices. It doesn’t know that the plastic carries contaminants that are increasing their body-burden of industrial chemicals; it doesn’t know that there is no recycling for these products; it doesn’t know that many of these products will not even make it to a landfill – that they will end up in the ocean.
http://www.algalita.org/

More reading and other resources:

National Geographic http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/?ar_a=1
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/26/opinion/choking-the-oceans-with-plastic.html?_r=0
Natural History Magazine
http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/htmlsite/master.html?http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/htmlsite/1103/1103_feature.html

Lighthouses of the San Francisco Bay Area, Continued

Finding the Golden Gate

Golden Gate Bridge Across Golden Gate Strait
Photograph by Aaron Reed, Tandem

The passageway under the Golden Gate Bridge is not named for the famed bright orange span-- rather the bridge is named for the Golden Gate Strait.  It is roughly three miles long and one mile across, and renowned for its 300 foot depth and powerful Pacific Ocean tidal currents ranging from 4.5 to 7.5 knots depending upon time of day. Early explorers and mariners frequently missed the opening to the bay, since it was often shrouded in fog— as it is to this day.

In the fall of 1542 Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrilho missed the entrance to San Francisco Bay, but found and named Cabo de Pinos or Point Reyes, as we know it today. Autumn storms forced the expedition to retreat south where they again missed the entrance to San Francisco Bay before entering Monterey Bay, naming it Bahia de los Pinos. 

In 1577, Sir Francis Drake landed in Northern California during his circumnavigation of the world. Historians believe the most likely spot for his landing was on present day Drake’s Beach near Point Reyes-- also having missed the entrance to the bay. These near misses continued for nearly 200 years until Sgt. Jose Francisco Ortega, in 1769, led a scouting party north along the San Mateo peninsula to present day San Francisco where he reported he could go no further due to the strait.

It wasn't until August 5, 1775, that Juan de Ayala and his crew aboard the San Carlos became the first Europeans to pass through the strait. Until the 1840s, the strait was called the Boca del Puerto de San Francisco— a mouthful that means “mouth of the Port of San Francisco.”

John C. Fremont
Steel Engraving from a Photograph
by Mathew Brady, 1856.

In 1846, two years before the discovery of gold in California, U.S. Army Captain John C. Fremont observed the narrow strait that separates the Bay from the Pacific Ocean, and later wrote in his Geographical Memoir, submitted to the U.S. Senate on June 5, 1948,  “to this Gate I gave the name of Chrysopylae or Golden Gate for the same reasons that the harbor of Byzantium was called Chrysoceras, or Golden Horn.“ It wasn’t long before the Greek name gave way to the English name Golden Gate which began to appear on maps.

Even with its location pin-pointed on maps, the Golden Gate was never easy to enter. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimates there are 300 wrecks in the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area alone, spanning a historical period from 1595 to the present.

From a present day perspective, lighthouses and other aids to navigation have vastly improved nautical access to San Francisco Bay. Picking up where we left off on the last post, San Francisco’s Historic Lighthouse Network, let’s approach the Golden Gate and pass through. 

Mile Rocks Light

Mariners who spot the Point Bonita Light in the Marin Headlands north of the channel can look east through the Golden Gate Strait to spot the Alcatraz Light which visually marks the center of the channel. Great care must be taken, however, to avoid the rocky shoreline on either side.

Mile Rocks Lighthouse, AKA
the Steel Wedding Cake,1962.
Photograph Courtesy US Coast Guard

Two large rocks named Mile Rock and Little Mile Rock are located just off San Francisco’s Point Lobos. The southern side of the entrance to the Golden Gate is mined with an array of dangerous wave-swept rocks that includes Black Head Rock, Lobos Rock, and Pyramid Rock. The two northernmost, and thus most dangerous to navigation, are Mile Rock and Little Mile Rock, known together as Mile Rocks. Located roughly a half-mile from the closest shore, Mile Rocks are one mile south of the main shipping channel leading into San Francisco Bay. 

The larger measures 40 feet by 30 feet and stands barely 20 feet above sea level. The rocks were first marked with a bell buoy in 1889, but the deadly shipwreck of The City of Rio de Janeiro on February 22,1901 illustrated the need for a lighthouse. At least 128 people,including Captain William Ward, who went down with his ship, lost their lives when the Rio de Janeiro sank within yards of the Fort Point Lifesaving Station whose crew was unaware of the catastrophe until survivors began to float past in the fog. 

James A. McMahon of San Francisco was awarded the contract to build the foundation for the lighthouse in 1904. He assembled a skilled crew to assess the construction site, but

Sonar Image of SS City of Chester Shipwreck,
Bow on Left/ Stern to Right.
Found in vicinity of City of Rio de Janeiro wreckage.
Courtesy Coda Octopus/NOAA 

after seeing the turbulence assaulting the rock on which the lighthouse was to be built, the crew quit. A second crew, consisting of deep-sea sailors recruited from San Francisco’s wharf, was then assembled. Work began in September of that year. The small schooner Rio Rey was anchored near the rocks to serve as floating quarters for the workers. 

The difficulties in working on the exposed rock were described by the Lighthouse Board: “There was hardly a day during the year on which at some time the waves did not break over the rock. There were many days when no landing could be effected and many others when the party, after landing, was driven off with only a few hours of work accomplished. On several occasions it was necessary to call upon the neighboring life-saving crews to take the men off the rock. A full day of eight hours passed upon the rock was exceptional until after the substructure was completed in June, 1905.” 

The completed lighthouse was nicknamed the steel wedding cake. The first tier of the tower housed the oil engines and compressors for powering the station’s fog signal. The second tier comprised two stories, with an office kitchen, and day room on the bottom floor, and two bedrooms and a bathroom on the second story. The third tier was used for storage and as a watchroom. The lantern room with its crosshatched window panes protected a third-order, L. Sautter & Co. Fresnel lens, which was first lit on February 15, 1906. A Notice to Mariners announced that the light would be a fixed red light with a focal plane of just over seventy-eight feet and that the station’s ten-inch whistle would sound a three-second blast every thirty seconds during thick or foggy weather.

Mile Rock converted to heli-pad

Families could not live on the station because it was so small  and spartan, so keepers served two weeks and on and one week off. The noise from the fog signal was deafening, and it was often difficult to get on and off the rocks because of powerful waves. 

Mile Rock’s lighthouse was automated and then closed in 1966 as a cost saving measure. The tower was removed, and today the base is used as a helicopter landing by the Coast Guard who maintains the automated light.

Lime Point 

Lime Point Lighthouse, 1883
Photo Courtesy US Coast Guard

Lime Point is situated on the northern side of the Golden Gate’s narrowest section, and today sits under the North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge.  It is perched on a rocky spur, barely twenty feet wide, which extends roughly 100 feet into the bay. 

The Lighthouse Board  decided to place a steam fog signal at Lime Point, on the opposite side of the Golden Gate from Fort Point because vessels approaching from the south could not hear the ringing of the fog bell when they needed it most. The facility consists of a one-story fog building and a two-story brick building designed to house two keepers and their families. It was completed in September 1883.

Located at the base of a steep cliff beneath the Marin hills, the station experienced several landslides and mudslides, which caused minor damage to the station and often closed the trail to Sausalito. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake wrecked the station’s large water tank, necessitating the construction of a new 30,000-gallon redwood tank atop ten concrete piers. 

When the Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937, a foghorn and light were placed at the base of the bridge’s south tower, making Fort Point Lighthouse unnecessary. The station at Lime Point was located just east of the base of the north tower and remained an effective position for a light and foghorn. Even with the massive, lighted bridge and active fog signals, navigating the Golden Gate in foggy conditions could still be tricky.

Recent View of Lime Point from Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge offered a new set of hazards besides the threat of small landslides from the hill above— litter and debris thrown from above, even orange paint drippings from the bridge’s painters. 

In 1900 a lantern had been mounted on the exterior wall of the fog signal building to help guide ships through the narrow Golden Gate.  It was automated in 1961 and the keeper’s house removed. The station is now closed to the public.

East Brother Light Station 

Vessels that enter the Golden Gate bound for the Sacramento or San Joaquin Rivers, first pass through San Francisco Bay, and then head north through San Pablo Strait into San Pablo Bay. Two-mile-wide San Pablo Strait is defined by Point San Pablo to the southeast and Point San Pedro to the northwest. In 1870, the Lighthouse Board sought a lighthouse and fog signal at or near Point San Pablo to guide the many steamers and sailing vessels passing through the strait. On March 3, 1871, Congress appropriated $20,000 for the station.

East Brother Island

The federal government attempted to purchase a tract of land on Point San Pablo, but could not come to terms with the landowners. The government then filed suit in the local courts, and condemnation proceedings began in July 1871. A jury settled on $4,000 as a fair price for the 12.8-acre tract on the point, but the landowners were not satisfied and appealed the verdict to the California Supreme Court.

 As the appeal delayed progress, anxious boat captains sent a petition to the lighthouse inspector in San Francisco suggesting that the lighthouse be built on East Brother Island which lies roughly 1,000 feet off Point San Pablo and was already government-owned.  The government ended the costly court battle for property on Point San Pablo, as the Secretary of War, William W. Belknap, agreed that East Brother Island which had been reserved for military use could be used for a lighthouse under the proviso “that it shall give way to fortifications whenever it shall be required for that purpose.” 

At sunset on March 1, 1874, the keepers lit the lamp in a revolving fourth-order Fresnel lens sending forth brilliant beams of light across San Pablo Strait. The fog signal followed exactly two months later, alternately sounding eight and four-second blasts, separated by twenty-four seconds of silence. The keepers would typically fire up the signal whenever Red Rock to the south, Point San Quentin to the west, or The Sisters was obscured by fog.

In the late 1960s, the Coast Guard announced plans to automate the station. The lighthouse was to be demolished and replaced by a light on a tower to spare maintenance costs. The

Stylish Victorian Bed & Breakfast,
East Brother Lighthouse

Contra Costa Shoreline Parks Committee launched a campaign to save the two-story Victorian dwelling with its 3-story light tower. In 1971, the station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places which prevented the stylish building from being destroyed. However,the Coast Guard had no funds for maintaining or restoring the buildings. 

East Brother Lighthouse was neglected for almost ten years while the wood rotted, the paint peeled, and the iron rusted. In 1979, East Brother Light Station, Inc.,a non-profit group, was created to restore the historic landmark and make it accessible to the public. Through government grants, private donations, and countless hours of volunteer labor, the structures on the island were lovingly restored. 

Today, day use fees and funds received through the operation of the lighthouse as a bed and breakfast are used to maintain the facilities. Four rooms sleep overnight guests in the lighthouse itself, with one additional room in the Walter Fanning fog signal building. Walter Fanning, grandson of keeper John Kofod, who served as head keeper of the lighthouse from 1914 to 1921, frequently visited his grandparents on the island and played a key role in the restoration efforts. The island’s sole supply of water remains the rainwater captured in the station’s cistern and pumped into the storage tanks. 

A modern foghorn is operated twenty-four hours a day between October 1 and April 1, so a good pair of earplugs is a must for overnight visitors.  East Brothers Lighthouse has been an active lighthouse for more than 141 years.

Yerba Buena Island

Yerba Buena Island Lighthouse, 1891,
prior to foresting with eucalyptus trees.
Photo Courtesy US Coast Guard

Established in the 1870s, the lighthouse was built primarily as a guide for ferries between San Francisco and Oakland.  The island’s lighthouse history began in 1873 when the Lighthouse Service moved the district's depot from Mare Island to the southeast side of Yerba Buena Island. 

From the depot, a lighthouse tender was regularly dispatched to the light stations up and down the coast. The arrival of the lighthouse tender at a station was considered a mixed blessing. Not only did it bring desired items like paychecks, mail, food and supplies for operating the station, but it also brought the notoriously strict lighthouse inspector, who would give the station a thorough going-over. The lighthouse tenders Shubrick, Manzanita, and Madrono were assigned to the depot over the years. Later, the depot was also used to service lightships, which were anchored near dangerous sections of the west coast where it was impractical to build a lighthouse. 

USLHT Shubrick was the first lighthouse tender steamer
constructed by the US Lighthouse Board.
Photo Courtesy US Coast Guard.

In 1875 construction of the 25-foot tower was completed with the installation of a fifth order Fresnel lens. In 1933, a tunnel was bored through Yerba Buena Island to link the east and west sections of the Oakland Bay Bridge. The light was automated by the United States Coast Guard in 1958. 

Even with the lights on the nearby bridge, Yerba Buena Lighthouse remains operational to this day. It is currently an active aid to navigation but is not open to the public. The former keeper’s quarters are home to the Coast Guard District Commander. The area of the island that served as the lighthouse depot is home to Coast Guard Group San Francisco and Aids to Navigation Team San Francisco. 

Angel Island

Stairs Lead Down to Point Knox. Photo Courtesy
US Coast Guard.

When Spanish naval vessel San Carlos made the first European passage into San Francisco Bay in 1775, under the command of Juan de Ayala, it anchored off Angel Island. The bay where he anchored is now known as Ayala Cove. Several light and fog signal stations have been placed around the island over the years. On the southwest end of the island, just offshore from Tiburon at Point Knox, a fog bell was installed in 1886. Then a one-story keeper's dwelling was built adjacent to the bell house. The station was reached by a long wooden stairway down the face of a steep cliff facing the Bay.  

The station’s first keeper, John Ross, began his career on the east coast where he accepted a position aboard the new lighthouse tender Shubrick which left Philadelphia in 1857 and sailed around Cape Horn bound for its designated home port of San Francisco where it was berthed at Mare Island. En route, the ship’s coal supply ran out, and the crew was forced to burn furniture and the ship’s beautiful wood paneling to keep the boiler fires lit.

In 1872, Ross still served aboard the Shubrick when a towing accident forced the amputation of a leg. His seagoing career over, John Ross accepted a keeper position. He served as an assistant keeper at Point Hueneme and Piedras Blancas before being promoted to head keeper at  Angel Island. Ross, with his wife and two children, faithfully tended the bell at Point Knox for sixteen years. In November 1900, a lens lantern was added to the station.

Theodore Sauer, accompanied by his wife Laura, served as keeper of  Point Knox

Keeper Ted Sauer

Lighthouse for nine years ending with his retirement on October 31, 1951. He wrote a moving testimony of love for the job many might consider a banishment from society.  

Lighthouse living was not always easy. We often laughingly stated that Lighthouse keeping is not light housekeeping. It was a quiet life and at times monotonous but there is something about the lighthouse service that brings forth an intense sense of responsibility... We realized early that loneliness was the greatest destroyer of contentment. We decided to combat loneliness by keeping alert for the interesting events of each day. There was always the beauty of scenic surroundings to enjoy. The sunsets at times were so inspiring that we were filled with awe at the majestic beauty of them. Then the sea, ever changing from calmness to turbulence, was always fascinating. The waves, which seemed at times to be doing a can-can with lacy petticoats as they danced along the shore, were a delight to watch. On clear nights, the stars reflecting their brilliance on the smooth sea, made us feel very close to our Supreme Admiral. No, loneliness was not a part of our living for there was always much to do and enjoy. Thus we were compensated with the peace that comes from striving to do our best.

The Lonely Bell at
Point Knox.

Point Knox was automated in the early 1960s, and the station at Point Blunt assumed oversight for all operations on Angel Island. The structures on Point Knox were intentionally burned to the ground in 1963 to avoid the cost of maintenance, leaving behind just a solitary bell supported on a wooden frame. Point Blunt Lighthouse was established in 1915, and a new watch room was built with a view of the entire San Francisco Bay in 1960. Then Point Blunt Lighthouse, too, was automated in 1976.

Few Angel Island visitors even notice the bell which rests at the base of a steep cliff and is inaccessible. Lighthouse enthusiasts like to think it was left behind as a silent tribute to the faithful keepers whose service at Point Knox Lighthouse has become legendary.

Oakland Harbor Lighthouse

The arrival of the Central Pacific railroad terminus at Oakland in 1869 heightened the need for a nearby link to shipping in San Francisco Bay. Consequently, two piers were built, spaced 750 feet apart, extending two miles out into the bay. The area around them was dredged to form a shipping terminal. The Lighthouse Board requested funding, and Congress provided $5,000 in 1879 for a small lighthouse and fog signal to be built at the end of the northern pier.  

The original Oakland Harbor Lighthouse sat atop eleven wooden pilings, which had been driven into the bottom of the bay off the end of the northern pier, and was similar in style to several of the original California lights with a central tower that extended through the gabled roof of a rectangular, two-story dwelling. The lantern room housed a fifth-order Fresnel lens,

Second Oakland Harbor Lighthouse Prior to 1918.
Photo Courtesy US Coast Guard.

and the station was activated on January 27, 1890. A 3,500-pound bell was mounted on a wooden walkway that encircled the keepers’ dwelling. The bell was located just ten feet from one of the keeper’s beds and would cause the whole lighthouse to shudder each time it was struck. Adjacent to the bell was a water tank for storing rainwater captured from the dwelling’s roof.

In December 1890, the Southern Pacific Railroad’s 294-foot side-wheel paddle ferry Newark crashed into the lighthouse and smashed one of the lighthouse’s support piles and a platform brace. Concrete casings added in 1899 were clearly not enough to save the weakened lighthouse so Congress appropriated $19,000 on June 28, 1902. This time, huge steel support cylinders with a diameter of four feet were placed around three pine piles and then filled with concrete to thwart marine borers. Work on the new lighthouse began in March 1903 and was finished just five months later.

The second lighthouse was a nearly square, two-story structure built upon a steel-beam

1950s View of Oakland Harbor Lighthouse Enclosed in Pier.
Photo Courtesy US Coast Guard.

decking that rested on eleven support cylinders. The bottom floor of the lighthouse was used for storage. The upper floor was home to two keepers and their families. The new lighthouse commenced operation on July 11, 1903, with a new 3,000-pound fog bell mounted on the second story’s balcony.

After the completion of the new lighthouse, the old familiar landmark was declared a navigational hazard and had to be removed. The local press and many Oaklanders were upset by the removal of a local icon, but the new facility did not fare any better. 

Quinn's Lighthouse Restaurant & Pub.

In 1966, an automatic beacon was installed at the end of the pier, and the lighthouse was deactivated. Shortly thereafter, the lantern room was shipped to Santa Cruz where it was installed on the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse. Oakland Harbor Lighthouse was eventually sold to a restaurant firm for $1, but the new owners then had to spend $22,144 to  transport the structure six miles south along the Oakland estuary to its current home at Embarcadero Cove, where it became Quinn’s Lighthouse Restaurant and Pub. 

History Marches On

The lighthouses were operated by the U. S. Lighthouse Service until 1939, when the agency was merged into the U.S. Coast Guard. By the 1970s, most lighthouses were automated and the keepers were no longer needed. The keepers’ quarters were either abandoned or used by other government organizations. In some cases, locals made agreements with the Coast Guard to take over the site. 

The East Brother Lighthouse in Richmond is an example where a community refused to give up its historic landmarks and found a way to save the lighthouse. However, there were many historic lighthouses without keepers, and the structures were falling apart. Coast Guard and lighthouse enthusiasts recognized this fact and had legislation passed to enable the Coast Guard to relinquish the properties. 

The National Historic Preservation Act of 2000 enables the federal government to report the lighthouses as excess property and let other entities apply for ownership to continue the historic preservation. This bill enables nonprofit organizations to legally own them without having to compete with larger, more affluent groups. The Coast Guard still has access to the properties because many lighthouses are still used as aids to navigation.




Two more valuable online resources for your surfing or dining enjoyment:

http://www.lighthousefriends.com/

http://www.quinnslighthouse.com/

San Francisco's Historic Lighthouses

If you wish to avoid blinding fog, dazzling sunlight, bone-chilling wind, strenuous hikes— and stupendous ocean views, the majesty of the Golden Gate Bridge, stirring cityscapes, close wildlife encounters… Instead, one can spend a very satisfying and enlightening time in the comforts of home surfing the internet to explore San Francisco’s enchanting lighthouses and the history they enabled to unfold as our young nation embraced our western shores. 

Golden Gate Bridge Engulfed in Fog

This blog post is the first of two. Imagine approaching the California coast to find your way into San Francisco Bay in the fog before lighthouses and the Golden Gate Bridge provided visual guidance during the day. Night time navigation was far more treacherous!

The second blog post in this series will usher the reader/imaginary ship through the Golden Gate into the relative safety of the bay— and describe the aids to navigation designed to assure nautical safety inside.

The end of this post will list resources for the intrepid explorer of lighthouse lore. There are hours of enjoyment ahead.

It All Began With the Gold

With the 1848 discovery of gold in her hills, California and, indeed, America changed forever. San Francisco, a beautiful but barren outpost, became the main port for gold seekers from around the globe. In 1849, the city’s population leaped from 900 to 20,000. Congress recognized the need to complete a survey of the entire west coast of the United States and to build seven lighthouses to guide navigation, and secure safe haven to

City of Rio de Janeiro, courtesy Mystic Seaport  

America’s expanding maritime commerce. By 1852 the coast survey was complete, and a system of lighthouses was developed to lead the new settlers and explorers safely through the dangerous waters and thick fog of the bay’s entrance. 

Despite the growing effectiveness of the lighthouses, over 300 boats ran aground near the Golden Gate during the gold rush years. The worst maritime disaster in San Francisco’s history occurred in 1901, when the steamer City of Rio de Janeiro struck Point Diablo, a few hundred feet offshore of Point Bonita. The pilot was pressured by an influential passenger to proceed in spite of darkness and thickening fog. The lives of 128 passengers were lost when the doomed ship struck rocks, quickly filled with seawater and sank to the bottom of the Bay.  

Over the years, technological advances have improved most aids to navigation— and have made the storied lighthouses and their intrepid keepers nearly obsolete. Yet, they leave behind an elegant array of architectures and marvels of engineering that enabled bay area history to unfold by land and by sea. What follows is a brief synopsis of San Francisco Bay lighthouse history.

Alcatraz Lighthouse— First on the West Coast

In July 1853, the Alcatraz Lighthouse was the first to be completed, making it the oldest major navigational light on the west coast.  Construction of the foundation for the tower

began in 1852. The tower and the keepers’ two-storied Cape Cod-style cottage were completed in 1853. New and improved technology, in the form of Fresnel lenses from France, was ordered for all planned future lighthouses. The powerful lens arrived from France in October of that year, and Head Keeper Michael Cassin lit the whale oil lamp on June 1, 1854.  Its beam could be seen up to 19 miles away. 

By 1895, Alcatraz Island had become a small city with its own post office run by the lighthouse keeper, and its own boat dock to service the growing community. Inhabitants included the lighthouse keepers and their families, and officers and soldiers from the army post, The Citadel, as it was known then.

Newer 84-foot tower and keepers' quarters, 1909.
US Coast Guard historical photo.

The original lighthouse was damaged in the 1906 earthquake, and a new lighthouse was built to the southeast of the original. By this time, the military buildings on the island were obscuring the tower,  so it was decided to build a taller tower rather than to repair the cracked one. The old lighthouse was replaced by an 84-foot tower of concrete in 1909. It sat alongside the new structure and was used as a storehouse until it was demolished between 1912 and 1913.

The lighthouse was operated and maintained by the keepers whose bag of tricks included fog horns located on the northern and southern tips of the island. Once the Penitentiary opened, its guards, who were better positioned to see advancing fog from their elevated watch towers, notified the keepers so the fog horns could be activated.

Alcatraz light tower
and ruins of keeper's quarters,
photo courtesy
Wikimedia Commons

Living on the island with maximum security prisoners required the keepers and their families to lead a unique way of life. When trouble arose in the prison, the keepers were instructed to lock their doors and windows. Fortunately, they did not need to leave their quarters to operate the lighthouse. Children who attended school in San Francisco, and wives who shopped for food and other necessities in the city, rode the same boat delivering new inmates to the prison. All passengers would be counted coming and going from the island.

The automation of the Alcatraz lighthouse with a modern beacon occurred in 1963, the year the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closed its doors. The unique island community with the spectacular views was disbanded and returned to shore and little remains of the keepers’ domain.

In 1970 a fire destroyed the keepers' quarters and other buildings on the island, including the former warden’s house. The only remaining lighthouse building is the tall cement tower equipped with a modern beacon.   

Fort Point

The first of three lighthouses constructed at Fort Point was completed in 1853, but was never used because it was still awaiting its Fresnel lens when it was torn down three months

Fort Point Light Beneath
Golden Gate Bridge

later to build Fort Winfield Scott. A second lighthouse was built in 1855. The structure built on a narrow ledge between the fort and the seawall was torn down eight years later when the Army needed to repair the eroding seawall. 

The third was built in 1908. The 27- foot iron tower was built on the parapet of Fort Point, and the houses of the three keepers perched behind on the bluff, connected by a catwalk. It

Fort Point Dining Room

was deactivated in 1934 when the Golden Gate Bridge was built because the bridge blocked the light. The second lighthouse built on the west coast is still visible when visiting Fort Point. An automated beacon and fog signal were eventually installed at the base of the bridge’s south tower.

Point Bonita Marks Entrance to San Francisco Bay

Alcatraz’s light showed the way for ships directly in front of the Golden Gate and Fort Point’s lighthouse marked the southern edge of San Francisco Bay, but another lighthouse was needed north of the Golden Gate to make the entrance visible to ships sailing up the coast

Suspension Bridge leads to Point Bonita Lighthouse.
Photo by Rachel Amy Shahvar

from the south. That lighthouse site became Point Bonita. 

Point Bonita Lighthouse, the third lighthouse on the West Coast, was completed in 1855. This lighthouse in the Marin Headlands, was the first fog signal on the West Coast using a cannon before bells, gongs, horns, and sirens were put into service. Like most lighthouses, its 56-foot brick tower was built on a high bluff. On a clear day, the bright Fresnel lens could project a beam visible 18 miles offshore. However, it was soon discovered that at 306 feet above sea level, the beacon was above the fog line and ships could not see it. 

Point Bonita Keepers' Quarters circa 1896.
Golden Gate NRA Archives

In 1877 the lighthouse was moved lower on the hill to 124 feet above sea level. The new site had a walkway around the hill cliff side with a suspension bridge to the lighthouse. For improved safety, Chinese laborers experienced in digging rail tunnels were hired to bore a 180-foot tunnel to bring supplies to the lighthouse. 

The keepers’ quarters and the boilers of the fog signal used enough coal to necessitate the construction of a dock and tramway to offload supplies for the lighthouse. Point Bonita also staffed a lifesaving station with nine surfmen who operated out of a boathouse with a rail launch for their surfboat and lifeboat, a lookout tower and crews’ quarters.

Automated in April 1981, it was the last manned lighthouse in California. Point Bonita is still an active aid to navigation. Today, the U.S. Coast Guard maintains the lighthouse and the National Park Service provides access to visitors.  

Farallon Island Light

Farallon Island Light is a lighthouse on Southeast Farallon Island.  The Farallons lie 30

Farallon Island Light

miles outside San Francisco’s Golden Gate and 20 miles south of Point Reyes. Officially part of the City and County of San Francisco, the islands are visible from the mainland on clear days.One of the highest lights in California, it was constructed in 1855 during the celebrated decade after the Gold Rush when maritime traffic sailed into the bay in large numbers. 

Stone for the construction of the lighthouse was quarried on the island. The extremely sharp slopes of the island and the jagged nature of the rock made construction very difficult. Bricks

Social event! Mail arrives on the Island.

used in the tower were carried up the rock in bundles of four and five on the backs of laborers. After an initial false start when the lantern room had to be rebuilt to house its new Fresnel lens, construction was completed and the lamp lit January 1, 1856.

A mule named Jack was kept on the island for years to carry supplies between the various parts of the station. At one time this mule was the oldest inhabitant. The federal government

Jack the Mule when lantern room was intact.

eventually put a stop to the gathering of birds’ eggs, which were sold on the San Francisco market, and to the commercial harvest of Northern Fur Seals which had become an endangered species.  

In 1939, the United States Coast Guard took over the lighthouse as it merged with the United States Lighthouse Service. By 1972, the lantern room and the Fresnel lens had been removed, and an automated aerodrome beacon was placed on the tower. Today the original Fresnel lens is on display in the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park visitor center on Hyde Street.

Point Reyes Lighthouse

Point Reyes, 35 miles north of the Golden Gate, is possibly the windiest place on the Pacific Coast and surely one of the foggiest places on the North American continent. Weeks of fog, especially during the summer months, frequently reduce visibility to hundreds of feet. The

Point Reyes Lighthouse, © Frank Schulenburg

first recorded shipwreck on the west coast occurred here in 1595— the Spanish galleon San Agustin. More than 270 years later, the 1866 sinking of the paddle steamer Labouchere in heavy fog reinforced the need for a lighthouse in the area.

Although funds to build a lighthouse were allocated in 1854, ranchers who owned the land had demanded shamefully high prices. Fifteen years later, after the Civil War, landowners became more reasonable when the Lighthouse Board began condemnation proceedings against them.

Like the Point Bonita Lighthouse, the original plans for the Point Reyes site changed to combat the area’s fog. Instead of placing the light at the top of the western-most point of the Point Reyes Headlands, it was located 275 feet down the hillside with the fog signal building 100 feet below the lighthouse. From the keepers’ quarters at the top of the hill, it was 308 steps down to the lighthouse, its equipment shed and oil house and another 338 steps down to the original fog-signal building.

First Order Fresnel Lens from Point Reyes,
photo by Eric Chan.

The Point Reyes Lighthouse lens and mechanism were constructed in France in 1867. The clockwork mechanism, glass prisms and housing for the lighthouse were shipped on a steamer around the tip of South America to San Francisco. Then the parts from France and sections of the cast iron tower were transferred to a second ship, which sailed to a landing on Drakes Bay. 

Delivering building materials to the site was a very difficult task. Materials had to be staged on Drakes Beach, then hauled up the cliff and hauled by ox-drawn carts three miles over the headlands to a point near the tip of Point Reyes, 600 feet above sea level, and then carried down to the construction site. 

Point Reyes Light, 1871-- shortly after completion.

Finally, after many years of tedious local politics, transport of materials and difficult construction, the Point Reyes Light was lit on December 1, 1870. The new light did not, however, immediately end the threat of shipwrecks. Because of this ongoing problem, a lifesaving station was established in 1890 on Great Beach, north of the lighthouse. Men walked the beaches in four-hour shifts, watching for shipwrecks and anyone in need of rescue from the frigid waters and powerful currents.

 A new lifesaving station was opened in 1927 on Drakes Bay near Chimney Rock and was active until 1968 when modern technology and the rapid response of the U.S. Coast Guard made the station obsolete. Today, it is a National Historic Landmark and can be viewed from the Chimney Rock Trail.

The historic Point Reyes Lighthouse served mariners for 105 years before it was retired from service in 1975 when the U.S. Coast Guard installed an automated light. Ownership of the lighthouse was transferred to the National Park Service, which has taken on the job of preserving this fine specimen of our heritage.

All lighthouses in the United States are now automated because it is cheaper to let electronics do the work. Many decommissioned lighthouses were transformed into inns, museums or restaurants. Today the lighthouse at Point Reyes National Seashore is a museum, where the romance of the lightkeepers' lives, the craftsmanship and the beauty of the lighthouse are lovingly preserved.

Stay tuned— more to come!

Now that we have successfully approached the fabled Golden Gate, we must navigate its relatively narrow, oft windy and fog-shrouded canyon without running aground the rocks on either side. Since “safely inside the bay” is a relative term, we’ll explore inside the bay, its unusual and historic aids to navigation, in the next post.

Virtual Exploration of Lighthouse History and Lore

There is a wealth of information about lighthouses— their origins, history, technology and people--readily available on the internet. Much of what you see in this blog post is gleaned from an enjoyable few days of surfing these resources.

U.S. Coast Guard   http://www.uscg.mil/history/h_index.asp   See the Powerpoint “History of the U.S. Lighthouse Service” for a pictorial overview of the types of lighthouses, technology used, description of Fresnel lens and its “orders.”

United States Lighthouse Society   https://uslhs.org/history/   Provides a thorough description of almost every aid to navigation historically used in the United States— with lots of enlightening lore.

National Park Service   http://www.nps.gov/history/places.htm   The National Park Service website is a very good resource if you know which lighthouse info you wish to access. Simply enter the name of the site into the search field and voila!

Lighthouses of the Bay Area   by Betty S. Veronico, Arcadia Publishing.