“Wo,” someone might say. The Old Orchard Shoal Light stood strong for over a century. But Hurricane Sandy destroyed it on October 29, 2012. The US Coast Guard confirmed its total loss.
Old Orchard Shoal Light was a sparkplug lighthouse. It marked a large shoal area in lower New York Bay. It was completed and lit on April 25, 1893. The light stood 35 feet tall. Its shape was conical. People called it a “spark plug.” The lower half was brown. The upper half was white. It stood on a black pier.
The lighthouse had a concrete and cast-iron caisson foundation. The tower itself was cast iron. The light’s original lens was a fourth-order Fresnel lens. Later, it used a 250 mm lens. The light characteristic was Fl W 6s. This meant it flashed white every six seconds. The white light could be seen for 7 nautical miles. There was also a red sector visible for 5 nautical miles.
The fifty-one-foot, cast-iron tower had a “spark plug” style. This style was typical for offshore lights in the area. A canopy encircled the first floor. The fourth-order Fresnel lens produced a white beam to the southeast. It showed a red light in other directions. The light was on for twelve seconds. Then it was dark for three seconds. A fog signal operated at the lighthouse. It was an air siren. It sounded blasts of seven-and-a-half seconds. Then there was a silent interval of the same length.
The lower part of the caisson foundation was filled with concrete. Water cisterns and a basement were in the top part. This flared out to thirty-three feet in diameter. The three-story brick-lined tower stood on the circular foundation. It housed the keepers and supplies. The bottom two stories had rectangular windows. The third story had five porthole windows. A metal staircase wound up the interior wall.
The first head keeper at Old Orchard Shoal was Alfred L. Carlow. Thomas Burke was the first assistant keeper. In 1916, Keeper William Epkens described how he caught up on news. He read old newspapers in order. He lived through the month as if he were in the city.
Ice floes damaged the caisson foundation in 1918. Cracks appeared. Workers added 7,000 tons of riprap to strengthen the foundation. This made it hard to launch the station’s boat. So, they built a concrete boat landing. It had a crane, winch, and cradles.
Old Orchard Shoal Lighthouse was automated in 1955. It continued to show a flashing white light with a red sector. The fog signal was discontinued.
In 2008, the lighthouse was auctioned off. The winning bid was $235,000.
After Hurricane Sandy destroyed Old Orchard Shoal Light, plans emerged to rebuild it at the National Lighthouse Museum. It would be a memorial to those who died in the hurricane. The light may be gone but its story lives on.