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Aids to Navigation
Primary seacoast lights were located to warn mariners of their proximity to land, the presence of navigational dangers, and to help set their course. By 1852, however, lighthouses and lightships often looked so much alike that it was difficult to distinguish one from another.
Today, each lighthouse has a “characteristic” or coded sequence of light flashes making it possible for the mariner to identify the light and its location along the coast. For example, Barnegat Light’s “Characteristic” was a flash every ten seconds at each point of the compass.
Each lighthouse tower also has a “daymark” or distinctive design and paint pattern. The yellow-black-yellow painted pattern on Absecon Lighthouse helped mariners to distinguish it from others. Some lighthouses, especially those located on dangerous shoals in the harbors and bays, are also equipped with fog signals to warn mariners of potential danger. What other unique characteristics and features help make each of New Jersey’s lighthouses distinctive?
Lighthouses of New Jersey
1. Sandy Hook Lighthouse
2. Robbins Reef Lighthouse
3. Romer Shoal Lighthouse
4. Twin Lights of Navesink
5. Conover Beacon
6. Great Beds Lighthouse
7. Chapel Hill Lighthouse
8. Sea Girt Lighthouse
9. Barnegat Lighthouse
10. Absecon Lighthouse
11. Hereford Inlet Lighthouse
12. Cape May Point Lighthouse
13. East Point Lighthouse
14. Finns Point Rear Range Lighthouse
15. Brandywine Shoal Lighthouse
16. Elbow of Cross Ledge Lighthouse
17. Miah Maull Shoal Lighthouse
18. Ship John Shoal Lighthouse
19. Tinicum Rear Range Lighthouse
Marker is on Water Street, on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
