Little Red Lighthouse

[doxx]

a lighthouse in my neighbourhood - anybody remembers
in which movie it was shown?

 

[voodoocat]

Don't know the movie but I love the photo. (aside from the rings in the sky due to compression)

 

[terri]

Wonderful shot! Perfectly composed, sharp as a briar, nice contrast. Love it.

I don't know the movie, either..... :scratch:

 

[ajmall]

great shot. the exposures good. can't think of the film though it could be a number of things...

 

[TwistMyArm]

It took me by surprise because of the title. I was expecting colour, but found b&w. I like it.
And I have no idea what movie it may have appeared in.

 

[cowbert098]

It took me by surprise because of the title. I was expecting colour, but found b&w. I like it.

Same here

 

[Harpper]

Great tone you have here Doxx. I also like the straight forward composition. I can't think of the film either but maybe someone else will get it.

 

[Lungfarmer]

Great photo Nice composition!

"This lighthouse was immortalized in the 1942 book, “The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge,” written by Hildegarde H. Swift and illustrated by Lynd Ward.

The lighthouse, powered in its early days with tanks of gas, was run by a part-time keeper. Charles Collins, 83, its second keeper, took over the job from his father, William, and now lives in the Bronx.

He vividly remembers the upkeep of the multiprismed Fresnel lens as a big job. “I had to polish the brass, clean the prisms and wash the windows on the outer part of the room that contains the light.” He also trekked twice daily down to the river — once to turn on the lighthouse and once to turn it off. Collins is pleased that the lighthouse has survived. “You don’t have to junk everything that once served a vital function,” he said. “It boils down to this: It was, and remains, the only lighthouse situated on Manhattan island.”

Today, the lighthouse is open by appointment for guided tours by urban park rangers.

On one recent tour, two park rangers produced a very large brass key with great fanfare to unlock the lighthouse for a visiting group from New Jersey. The children and grown-ups — many of whom recalled having the book read to them as kids — from the First Presbyterian Church in Englewood, N.J., climbed a spiral staircase to the top for a close-up of the lens and views of the Hudson, the Manhattan skyline and a unique perspective of the George Washington Bridge and its underbelly.

Its official name is the Jeffrey’s Hook Lighthouse, named after the treacherous rocky shoreline and site of numerous shipwrecks before its installation.

Constructed of 48 cast iron plates, it first stood in Sandy Hook, N.J., at the mouth of New York Harbor, from 1880 to 1917, and was reconstructed at its present site in 1921.

But much like the fictional tale, the lighthouse’s usefulness was overshadowed by the George Washington Bridge after it went up in 1931.

By 1947, Little Red was rendered obsolete and decommissioned by the Coast Guard. Four years later it was slated for demolition to make room for development of Fort Washington Park. The vociferous public outcry saved it and it was turned over to the parks department.

Benepe, the 46-year-old parks commissioner, remembers the lighthouse as “graffiti-filled and overgrown with weeds” 25 years ago. Today, he is a big promoter of Little Red, recalling that the book made a huge impression on him as a child.

He also sees it as a wonderful reminder of the city’s seafaring past during the first decades of the 20th century, when the Hudson was the major transportation artery between New York City and Albany.

“It’s also a great story of how different people came to its rescue,” he said.

It has received numerous facelifts since. In 1986, its concrete foundation was restored and new steel doors were installed. A fresh coat of red paint was applied in 2000.

Honors also were bestowed. In 1979, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, made a city landmark in 1991 and added to the city’s roster of Historical Houses in 1996.

And finally, with the help of the Historic House Trust, a Fresnel lens, nearly identical to the one the Coast Guard removed after decommissioning the lighthouse, was installed in 2001."

...as for the movie it was in... I have no idea! heh heh

 

[Daig55]

Where is that lighthouse? i'm from Connecticut. Kind of close. Great use of the rule of thirds. awesome picture.

No idea what movie. Tell us soon.

 

[vonnagy]

lovely shot doxx. i am going to the only one to complain in saying that i wish their were clouds in the sky. (dodges stones thrown from others)

Do you have a colour version as well?