Once I got outside the lighthouse I realized that I hadn’t gone down in the basement. But when I went back inside there were quite a few people on the stairway so I had to skip it as I.O. was so worried about missing the boat and having to wait for the end of the 2nd group’s tour.

Well I think we must have waited for most of those basement people anyway. In the meantime I took a few more pictures. Here’s one of the existing light.

http://a4.cpimg.com/image/7E/D2/13124734-c1d4-015201C2-.jpg

And I just had to get one more of that wash on the line!

http://a7.cpimg.com/image/6D/D1/13124717-02a8-01F40177-.jpg

This one shows off the new roof. I hoped to get the flag but the wind was blowing the wrong way.

http://a5.cpimg.com/image/61/D1/13124705-c6a0-01F40177-.jpg

One more time from the deck of the boat. The paint job looks great too.

http://a0.cpimg.com/image/5C/D1/13124700-363e-015201C2-.jpg

The boat finally did leave and there were a couple on the dock who just missed the
boat.

http://a1.cpimg.com/image/67/D1/13124711-ebb0-01F40177-.jpg

Strange how I lost that nice blue sky with a change in direction but as we were powering
away a bunch of sailboats passed between us and the lighthouse.

http://a1.cpimg.com/image/53/D1/13124691-a731-01F40177-.jpg

When we returned to the docking area, much to I.O.’s consternation, I was way laid by Sharon Jones and a few others asking me what I thought of the lighthouse, so we missed the first round of shuttle vans returning to the park. When we did return the ambulance was still there, getting a jump start, so it’s a good thing it wasn’t required.

We hit the road for home getting on the NYS Thruway a little after 4:30pm. We were pretty hungry as those refreshments had been light so we stopped at the first rest area, Mickey D’s, yuk. Why our lighthouse trips always turn out to be culinary flops is beyond me! Once we turned west we once again hit the rain. By 8:30pm we were home. It sure had been a pretty neat experience and we were fortunate that the weather was good.

Sue, Thanks again for the pictures. The inside photos really show how much work is left to be done. Hope your group continues to persevere as this is surely a wonderful light that needs to be saved.

HOpe none of their laundry falls off the line, as someone would definitley have to go fishing.

Bert

Thanks Sue for the great photos and story. I haven't had the opportunity to see this lighthouse. My husband is from Catskill, NY and we have seen Hudsen-Athens from a land view and toured through Saugerties and Kingston-Rondout lighthouses.

I am flying in to NYC next Thursday. I am going to try and see the Little Red Lighthouse and Tarrytown Lighthouse to finish out some of the Hudson River lights. Is it hard to see Esopus Meadows? How about Stony Point? Thanks again for the update.

Lorie,

You can walk right up to Stony Point.

I'm not sure of the hours / days it's open. The last time I was at the Park it's in we missed it's being open by about 1 1/2 hours.

It's north of NY not too far from West Point.

As for Esopus Meadows it's a bit farther north and you can get a fairly good view from the river bank at Lighthouse Park.

How much time will you have? It would probably be a 4 hour drive round trip from NYC. Depends on where you start from and the traffic.

Tarrytown is much closer- just north of the Tappen Zee Bridge. Jeffrey's Hook is literally at the base of the GW Bridge. The area you need to go through to get there is not the best in NYC, nor the worst. However, don't go alone.

Dennis

Thanks for the information Dennis. I was going to try and stop by Stony Point, Tarrytown, and Esopus Meadows on the way out of NYC on Sunday Oct. 13. We will be heading north to Catskill so I hope the traffic will be going in the opposite direction into the city. We'll stay in the Catskill area for 3 nights to visit family and won't have to return to NYC until Wed.

I'll be staying in Manhattan for 3 nights. I'll try to take the subway up to see the Little Red Lighthouse.

Lorie, here's a page on Stony Point.

http://www2.lhric.org/spbattle/spbattle.htm

Your view of Esopus Meadows will be distant and you won't be able to see the front of it. It's only 3 1/2 miles south of the Kingston-Rondout Lighthouse. Take a right on River Road just south of Port Ewen.

I don't know about the subway to Jeffrey Hook, Laurie. The area is not the greatest. I have not been there myself yet but I know Dennis and Shirin have been there recently.
Bob

Lorie,

Here are some basic directions to Jeffrey's hook.

The Lighthouse is in Fort Washington Park,178th Street & Hudson River, New York, NY [From Lafayette Place at W. 181st Street, take steps, footpath and footbridge over the highway, down to the park and south to the Lighthouse.]

As I said before it's best to not go alone. It is a somewhat unusual setting- you cross over entrance / exit road for the highway go down the steps and through a tunnel that goes under the roadway that brings you out into what looks like a forest.

The only evidence that you are in NYC at this point is the sound of the highway and the smells and items that are around you here.

Here's how someone else described it

http://hometown.aol.com/thelightkeeper/HudsonRiverLightkeepers.html

You have to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Jeffrey's Hook.

Here's directions for a view of Esopus Meadows from both sides of the River. Along with info on all of the Hudson River Lighthouses. Including the page for Jeffrey's Hook listed above

http://www.ulster.net/~hrmm/lighthouses/frame.html

Dennis

Thanks Bob and Dennis for your help. After reading about entering into the park where Jeffrey's Hook is located, it makes me think it's not very appealing to enter.

I have read that the circle line boat tour passes by Jeffrey's Hook and that might be a better approach to see it from the water rather than the park site.

Lorie,

Hope we didn't scare you off, but I wanted to make sure you knew what you were getting into.

It's a nice park. I went with my wife one sunny Sunday afternoon and I was not sure I was doing the right thing, but we got out OK. We even stopped at the Cloisters that afternoon.

This is what I called My Trip To the 5 Boroughs of NY in One Afternoon. We started in Manhattan at Jeffrey's Hook continued through the Bronx past Yankee Stadium to Queens where we stopped at Rossevelt Island for the Lighthouse there and continued onto Staten Island and took in the Lighthouse on Weed Battery which is right under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

We'll get a different view of it this Sunday on the way out of NY Harbor on our way to Bermuda. In fact the time we were at Weed Battery there was a family that had driven there just to wave at some friends who were leaving on a Cruise ship.

I had forgotten about the Circle Line- I guess I saw a couple of Lighthouses when I was very young. We used to take the Circle Line every other year at Easter time when we went to NYC. The other year we would go to Radio city music Hall for the Rockettes and the Easter Show.

Sorry for getting so off of topic here.

Dennis

Lorie, Not much more is left for me to to Dennis' comments about Jeffries Hook other than the fact that there is now a guard stationed very close to the lighthouse and bridge 24 hours a day. From what I could see the guards get rather antsy if you get too close to the bridge. I found this out last week when taking a tour of the light prior to attending a Hudson River Lighthouse Coalition board member meeting.

Speaking of the Coalition, the following link is to their website. Be warned, this is a work in progress and may not be 100% accurate.

Hudson River Lighthouse Coalition

shirin

Shirin,

It may very well be a work in progress, but it's very well done.

It collects the info about all of the existing Hudson River Lighthouses from Jeffrey's hook north and does an excellent job doing it.

This needs to be added to the Internet Index. It does not surprise me that there is a guard at the base of the GW Bridge- thinking about it I'm more surprised that access isn't more limited.

Dennis

You're right Dennis, I would think that there would be more security there as well. I'm not sure what one guard could really do should someone decide to be rather troublesome. But who knows, maybe there were some extra precautions I didn't quite notice. It was raining and hailing thanks to hurricane Isadore while we were trying to have a tour of the light and I didn't feel the need to spend an excessive amount of time outside looking around. Plus, I wanted to get inside to see their newly installed lens.

shirin

Thanks Dennis and Shirin. It is so nice to have help from the HL family of collectors!

Dennis, Have a wonderful time in Bermuda. It is a beautiful place to visit. Be careful if you rent scooters. They drive on the left side of the road and I kept forgetting. At least the speed limit is not very high. I'm sure you plan on seeing the Gibb's Hill lighthouse. I think that light would be a nice one for HL's to make.

Lorie,

Thanks. It's our first visit and our first Cruise. We will be celebrating our 28th Wedding Anniversary at Sea on 10-12-02 (easy to remember because it's the Real columbus Day).

I didn't even rent scooters on block Island so I'm sure not going to do it where they drive on the other side of the road.

Hope your visit to NY goes well.

Dennis