Los Angeles Harbor Lighthouse Station, Los Angeles California
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- Lighthouse
Whenever a deep-sea ship arrives on her maiden voyage in Los Angeles Harbor, the master is presented with a plaque by the Los Angeles Harbor commissioners. Etched on these plaques is a likeness of Los Angeles Harbor Lighthouse, considered the city's official greeter. It has been a landmark and seamark on the tip of the San Pedro Breakwater since 1913.
Designed and built differently from any other West Coast lighthouse, the tower, in a way of speaking, is in the same condition as the Tower of Pisa. Many years ago a furious gale struck, sending seas slamming into the lighthouse, repeatedly bathing it in salt water. Standing defiant on a giant block of reinforced concrete, the sentinel was buffeted for five days. Everything was tightly dogged, as the lighthouse, supported by strong pilasters, constantly fended off the driving seas. When the tempest quieted, the lighthouse was left with a scar that has never healed. The keepers complained that walking inside their domicile seemed a greater effort than before. A plumb line was dropped from the lighthouse gallery to the ground, and to the amazement of all, the lighthouse was found to have a slight tilt toward the shore.
However, there was no need for alarm as the engineer who designed the structure had allowed for such eventualities. A heavily braced structural steel framework with concrete plaster walls was used in the construction to allow for realignment when unequal settling of the breakwater demanded it. Thus, the lighthouse is both safe from settling and from earthquakes.
The two-mile-long jetty on which the lighthouse stands is often inundated by wind-whipped seas and keepers have frequently been marooned. On some occasions the fuel supply has given out, and though the storage house was only 30 feet away from the lighthouse, nobody dared step outside for fear of being swept off the jetty. Cooking by a blow torch was sometimes a necessity. Windows have been shattered 35 feet above the sea, and salt water has reached the top of the 73-foot tower in severe sea and wind conditions.
One night, several years ago, the keeper on duty was alarmed by the frightening sound of grinding steel immediately outside the station. Terrified, he leaped to his feet, stumbled, fell, smashed his pipe, and sprained his finger. Struggling again to his feet, he rushed to the nearest window where to his surprise he saw running lights, then the eerie silhouette of a giant battleship. Striking the jetty a glancing blow, the dreadnaught had careened back into the channel. The vessel went on to her destination with only a few scratches and the episode was marked "confidential" in Navy files. The keeper, to say the least, was more than a little shaken up for on May 7th, 1912, just a few months before the completion of Los Angeles Light, the steamer ROANOKE collided with the San Pedro Entrance Light in a dense fog and leveled the structure.
Los Angeles Light has been featured in television programs, fact and fiction, and has been witness to the fantastic harbor growth at Los Angeles, one of the world's greatest man-made ports. Complete with its fog signal and radio beacon, the unusual leaning lighthouse stands as a monument to its architect and builders.
Site Description
Los Angeles Harbor Light Station is a single structure, with associated facilities, situated upon the San Pedro Breakwater 2.1 miles west of San Pedro in the Los Angeles Harbor.
The breakwater, upon which the lighthouse is situated, is a man-made, monolithic block of concrete constructed in 1910. The harbor surrounding the lighthouse is heavily used by international shipping.
The lighthouse is primarily a cylindrical, five-story, plain concrete structure built in 1913 at a total cost of $35,971.49. The lighthouse has a structural steel framework throughout. The first story and deck above are octagonal in plan and covered with steel plates. The second story is dodecagonal in plan and the third, fourth, and fifth stories are cylindrical. Surmounting the tower is a cylindrical, helical-bar lantern, the focal plane is 59 feet above the top of the pier. The lantern gallery has a circular cast iron parapet in twelve sections with bronze panels.
The lighthouse is equipped with sophisticated equipment, including:
• Green light that emits 215,000 candlepower beam, and can be seen approximately 22 miles away.
• Electrical air oscillator, pure tone, type fog signal which can be heard up to two miles away, and is located on the second floor.
• Radio beacon signal which is synchronized with Point Conception and Point Loma, and can be picked up by ships 75 miles away. It is located on the fifth floor.
All equipment in the lighthouse is augmented by auxiliary warning systems, which are monitored by the shore station at Terminal Island.
In the past, facilities on the light included a kitchen, with dual water tanks (3rd floor), and sleeping accommodations for four men without families (2nd floor). Supplies were loaded at a dock connected to the breakwater adjacent to the station.
Since 1971, personnel have not been stationed at the light and all domestic equipment has been removed or is unserviceable. The aforementioned dock was destroyed during severe weather conditions by a tidal wave.
A major alteration on the lighthouse was the removal of an exterior balcony surrounding the lighthouse which can be envisioned by the now sealed concrete doorway on the fifth floor and the sealing up of all windows up to the third floor.
The lighthouse contains associated facilities, including:
(a) Quarters building, located adjacent to the lighthouse, is a 40'x 32' T-shaped, 21'4" tall two-story plain reinforced concrete structure with a flat-shaped roof. The structure was built in 1942 and contains porthole windows which have since been sealed up. These porthole windows were used during the war to allow the cables for submarine nets to attach to winches housed in the quarters building. Presently the ground floor is used for equipment storage and consists of one large room. The second floor consists of two small bedrooms, a large living room, and a bathroom with a shower.
(b) Oil house, located approximately 50' away is a 13'x 31' rectangular shaped 9' tall one-story plain reinforced concrete structure with a flat-shaped roof. The structure was built in 1938 and contains wood casement windows which have since been sealed up. The building consists of two rooms, each housing a 700-gallon oil tank.
Until 1970 the station generated its own power by a gasoline-powered generator. At that time a conduit was built along the mainland side of the breakwater. This concrete conduit houses electrical power and communication lines. The facilities presently utilize power from this source to operate the equipment. The generator is still housed on the first floor of the light and is utilized as an auxiliary power source.
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