This was the first lighthouse on the Pacific Coast, completed in July of 1853, although its third-order Fresnel lens did not shine until 6/1/1854; it was one of seven designed by the Baltimore firm of Gibbons and Kelly on the Pacific Coast; the lighthouse, which received a new, fourth-order Fresnel lens in 1902, was damaged in the San Francisco Earthquake of April 1906;

It was replaced by another lighthouse when the military prison at Alcatraz was enlarged in 1909-1911;

PCAD id: 4125