Saving the Lighthouse!

When the Montauk Point Lighthouse was first built in 1796 it was 300 feet from the shoreline. Today, because of erosion and storm damage to the bluff, it is only 95 feet from the shore. The good news is that a 2 1/2 year project that cost forty million dollars has just been completed, to rebuild and reinforce the stone revetment surrounding the lighthouse on three sides.

This view is looking west, and the lighthouse is up and to the right, outside the view of the camera.  The construction consisted of removing and reusing existing 5 and 10 ton armor stones, placement of new 10 and 15 ton armor stones and providing slope stabilization with terracing and vegetation above the upper crest of the revetment.  Look at the size of these stones!  Notice how carefully they are all put together, essentially leaving a road that the heavy equipment could move along, well above the water, while installing the new stones.  The revetment was nearly doubled in breadth and width with 60,000 tons of granite boulders!  This was a massive project and the results are stunning to behold. 

I cannot imagine how they placed these giant stones, so that they are all at one height the whole way around the base of Montauk Point!  It is like walking along a sidewalk when you walk around the lighthouse from below.

This is a snapshot from a video on display showing how the work was done, with this giant grappler, which arrived with a similar one, on a huge barge towed by two tugboats!

You can see here how far up the face of the cliff the new stones go.  There have been a number of projects over the years to protect the lighthouse, but a giant storm would come along and damaged these revetments, which were then rebuilt.  This new construction was designed to protect the Montauk Point Lighthouse for generations to come.