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Overview

This US Lighthouse Service maintained a manually-operated fourth-order Fresnel lens at the Alki Point Lighthouse between 1913 and 1984. After this time, the beacon became automated.

Building History

The US Congress made an appropriation in 1910 to purchase land at Alki Point in West Seattle for the purpose of erecting a lighthouse to guide mariners entering the harbor of Seattle. Prior to this federal expenditure, U.S. Lighthouse Service had operated a post lantern on the site as a beacon since 1887. According to Daryl C. McClary and L. Gunter writing for the US Coast Guard Auxiliary: "The Light House Service built a 37-foot-tall octagonal concrete and masonry tower with an attached fog signal building on the most exposed part of the point. Two large houses for the lighthouse keepers and their families were built behind the lighthouse. About 7,000 yards of sand and gravel were added to the point to protect the buildings in stormy weather from heavy swells and high tides. The two lighthouse keepers were required to keep constant vigils in alternate 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. For this, they each received a salary of $800 a year plus housing." (See Daryl C. McClary and L. Gunter, US Coast Guard Auxilary.info, "Alki Pt Lighthouse History," published 07/06/2003, updated 05/22/2007 and 07/2013.)

McClary and Gunter noted that the US Light House Service originally installed a fourth-order Fresnel lens at the Alki Point Lighthouse. They described it: "The light in the 37-foot tower at Alki Point, visible for at least 12 miles, was a fourth-order Fresnel lens, used mainly for shoals, reefs, and harbor entrance lights. Fresnel lenses capture and direct light by prismatic rings to a central bull’s-eye where it emerges as a single concentrated beam of light traveling in one direction. The lens was about two-and-a-half feet high and 20 inches in diameter, and weighed approximately 500 pounds. Each lens was made in brass-framed sections that were easy to disassemble for maintenance. Initially, a kerosene or acetylene lamp provided illumination, but by 1918, an electric light bulb replaced the lamp. However, old lamps were always kept handy in case the electricity or light bulb failed." (See Daryl C. McClary and L. Gunter, US Coast Guard Auxilary.info, "Alki Pt Lighthouse History," published 07/06/2003, updated 05/22/2007 and 07/2013.)

By 10/1984, the manually-operated Fresnel lens was decommissioned and a new VRB-25 marine rotating airway beacon added. This new light system maintained itself automatically, requiring only infrequent adjustments.

PCAD id: 24587