The Little Red Lighthouse

On the edge of the Hudson River, in the shadow of the George Washington Bridge, sits a modest cast iron lighthouse known as Jeffrey's Hook Light. Though originally built in 1889 to stand sentry over Sandy Hook, New Jersey, the 40-foot-high beacon was later transported and reassembled in Upper Manhattan because the jutting rocks of Jeffrey's Hook were proving to be a popular spot for shipwrecks, and the two 10-candlepower lanterns which dangled from a pole on the shore had little effect as a deterrent. For years the cheerfully red lighthouse stood on guard, stalwartly warding off barge captains with its battery-powered lamp and fog bell. Eventually the lighthouse was rendered obsolete by the completion in 1931 of the abundantly illuminated George Washington Bridge overhead.

The lighthouse ceased operation in 1947 and would have been fated for dismantling, were it not for a beloved 1942 children's book called The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge, written by Hildegarde Swift. Fans of the story refused to sit idly by while the Little Lighthouse That Could was auctioned off for scrap metal. They protested by sending in barrel-loads of letters to the city. Their actions paid off and the beacon was eventually preserved as a landmark by the Department of Parks and Recreation.

Jeffrey's Hook Light and its rocky environs also served as location for the climactic scene in the 1948 film noir Force of Evil, starring the explosive John Garfield.