Next was Tongue Point (Inner Harbor; Wells Point; Little Bug; Little Blackie; Bridgeport Breakwater) Lighthouse, CT. First built in 1891 at the end of a long breakwater pier. After years of complaints from commercial shipping companies that the sharp turn around the breakwater was a hazard to navigation, it was decided to do away with the pier. In 1919, after 350' of the inner breakwater had been torn down and added to the outer breakwater, the lighthouse was dismantled and moved 275' inland to its present location. Located within the confines of United Illuminating's Bridgeport Harbor Station, it is not open to the public. The inner surfaces of the tower's cast-iron wall and deck plates and brass fittings still show the painted numbers that facilitated the reassembly of the structure.

The 21' tall lighthouse rests on a 10' tall concrete pier, marking the east end of Tongue (Wells) Point, on the west shore of Bridgeport Harbor. The rings around the unlined and unadorned tower are formed by the overlapping of the tower's bolted sections. Because of its low profile, there are but two decks.

With no onsite living quarters, the keeper had to row out to the breakwater to service the light. And to make his task a bit more difficult there was, for the first 5 years, no structure upon which the keeper could land his boat. Although there were government proposals for the construction of a keeper's house at the end of a plank walk built in 1900 between the tower and the breakwater, the project never materialized. In 1906 the keeper, although having been supplied with a landing dock in 1896, built a shack on the breakwater to facilitate his tending the light.

During the tower's construction, it received a single kerosene lamp and a 6th-order Fresnel. The light was established in March of 1895 and automated in 1954. Although the classical lens was removed when a modern lens was installed in 1988, the Coast Guard did not remove the 1881 fog bell or its striking mechanism.

Owned by the U.S. Coast Guard, Tongue Point was scheduled for deactivation in 1967, but public protests persuaded the Coast Guard to retain the beacon as an active aid to navigation. It is not listed in the National Register of Historic Places.



The last stop for the day was Black Rock Harbor (Fayerweather; Fairweather Island) Lighthouse, CT. A 41'-tall rubble stone lighthouse was built in 1823 to replace the first beacon built on the southeast end of Fayerweather Island atop a small wooden tower built in 1808 and established in 1809 that endured until a gale toppled it in 1821.

The tower's double walls show an unusual construction technique—the builder filled the 8" space between the walls with wooden planks placed horizontally between layers of sand and small rubble stones.

The first lighting device was a whale-oil spider lamp. When rebuilt in 1823 the lantern received a Lewis optic, consisting of 8 lamps and 14" reflectors. Before the light's deactivation in March of 1933, it displayed a fixed white light intensified by a Fresnel-designed 5th-order lens installed in 1854.

Licensed to the City of Bridgeport since 1933, the Property is managed cooperatively by the Bridgeport Environmental Protective Commission and the Friends of Seaside Park. Restored in 1983, the lighthouse continued to be a popular target for vandalism and graffiti. The interior of the tower is gutted. In recent years a new preservation effort has been undertaken by the Black Rock Community Council. The plans call for protective riprap to be installed near the lighthouse and for all the masonry to be repointed. A 1998 restoration included paint and mortar carefully analyzed to restore it to its original color. Graffiti resistant paint was applied and vandal proof steel panes were installed in hopes that the restoration will hold up. The “windows” are false, but appear as glass from a distance.



Returned to Captain’s Cove dock around 12:30 PM and enjoyed lunch with 2 couples we sailed with.

Hope you’ve enjoyed your trip–we had a great time. Oh, BTW, received a notice in today’s mail that the Seaport Express will be providing transportation to this year’s Faulkner’s Island Open House which is sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, and Faulkner’s Light Brigade. Stan and I have been on their wait list since 2004!!