Point Bonita Light Station, Sausalito California

Date added: November 11, 2024

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California
Lighthouse

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The Point Bonita Light Station contains an intact lighthouse tower (in this case with intact lens as well) and an associated fog-signal building. The tower and fog-signal building, clustered together at the end of the rocky point, give a cohesiveness to the station site. This is heightened by the building's separation from the main access path by a pedestrian suspension bridge. This bridge, existing in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, gives an element of grace and whimsy to the lighthouse site. Point Bonita is the only lighthouse in the United States (perhaps the world) approached by a suspension bridge.

The Point Bonita Lighthouse was established in 1855 to mark the northern entrance to San Francisco Bay and to warn of local navigational hazards. Point Bonita itself is a sharp, rocky promontory jutting out in the water at the northern entrance to San Francisco Bay. As early as 1850 the U.S. Coast Survey had recommended that a lighthouse be constructed at this critical location. President Taylor had authorized the Coast Survey in 1849 to inspect and recommend sites for lighthouses along the California coast. Altogether, 16 lighthouse sites were recommended for California, four of them in the Bay Area, Alcatraz, Fort Point, Farallon Islands and Point Bonita. In the meantime, the Gold Rush had made San Francisco a West Coast boomtown, and the Bay was increasingly filled with maritime traffic from around the world. Despite the urgent need for a lighthouse at the entrance to the Bay, however, Point Bonita Lighthouse was not funded by Congress until 1853, the last of the Coast Survey recommended Bay lighthouses to receive appropriation. In an 1853 letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, the Superintendent of the 1853 Coast Survey stresses the urgency of funding for Point Bonita and explains why the other three funded lighthouses cannot serve as a suitable entrance marker to San Francisco Bay. Fort Point, he concludes, cannot be adequately viewed from a southern approach. This was an especially important consideration in the Gold Rush years when the majority of coastal traffic was arriving by way of Cape Horn or Panama. Alcatraz, the letter goes on, is located too far inside the Bay to be of much use as an entrance marker. And the Farallon Island Lighthouse, while valuable in the general navigation of the coast, is more useful "showing its own position and the surrounding dangers, than as a guide to the heads." Additionally, the coast provides no other natural landmark in the vicinity of the Bay that is "so well known or remarkable … as could be readily and promptly distinguished during a clear night."

While the station remained unbuilt, scores of shipwrecks occurred while trying to find a safe passage into the Bay. Few captains dared sail their vessels through the Golden Gate after sundown. Even those approaching in the daytime encountered fogs, swift currents, and other navigational hazards. The largest wreck to occur in the vicinity of Point Bonita was that of the sidewheeler steamship Tennessee on March 6^th, 1853. Fortunately, all 1000 passengers and crew made it safely to shore at Indian Cove (later renamed Tennessee Cove in memory of the shipwreck). Ironically, Congress had finally authorized and appropriated $25,009 for the Point Bonita Lighthouse just three days before the wreck on March 3^rd, 1853. Construction continued to be delayed, however, and in August 1853 Richard Hammond, Superintendent of Lights and Collector of Customs in San Francisco, wrote directly to the Secretary of the Treasury to try and expedite the construction of the light. More months passed and still no action was forthcoming from Washington. On September 29^th, 1854 a petition was submitted to the Secretary of the Treasury from the Branch Pilots Association and Merchant Ship Masters urging that there be no more delay in the construction of the lighthouse. Finally, on November 15^th, 1854, more than a year and a half after Congress appropriated funding, the lighthouse inspector of the 12^th Lighthouse District received authority to solicit contracts for the light's construction. The work was completed by local contractors and the Point Bonita Lighthouse beamed its first rays out to sea on May 2^nd, 1855.

Instead of the standard plan of a tower within a Cape Code style house used for the other early West Coast lighthouses, at Point Bonita the Lighthouse Board chose a separate site for each of the structures. The tower stood at an elevation of 260' near the edge of a cliff which had a steep drop down to the ocean below, while the house stood about 440 yards inland to the southeast, at a lower elevation. The two structures were most likely separated because of the practice of maximizing visibility by placing towers at the highest point of the land, in this case, a spot of land not large enough for a house and a tower. This decision would later prove to be the lighthouse's undoing, as its light proved to be too high to be seen through the frequent low clouds that rolled in through the Golden Gate. But at the time, it appeared to be a wise maneuver.

Soon after the light went into operation, the Lighthouse Board turned its attention to providing a fog signal at this often fog-bound location. A surplus army cannon requisitioned from the Benicia Arsenal was installed at Point Bonita on August 6^th, 1856 and became the West Coast's first operating fog signal. The cannon was to be fired every half-hour, day and night, during foggy weather. Since only one Lighthouse Officer was hired for this position, the long hours, and often sleepless nights, led to a rapid succession of unhappy attendants. Finally, on March 18^th, 1858 the cannon was replaced with a mechanically-struck fog bell that required little more than winding every six hours.

The extreme isolation of the early station also contributed to the unhappiness of lighthouse employees. It was typical of the early lighthouse system to make no provision for transportation other than occasional visits by the lighthouse tender. The nearest provisions for supplies were located in San Francisco, accessible only by boarding a steamboat in Sausalito after a three-hour trek over mountainous terrain. Once in San Francisco, lighthouse personnel found their meager government salaries to have scant purchasing power in Gold Rush San Francisco. By March of 1856, just 10 months after the station opened, Point Bonita had gone through two Keepers and five Assistant Keepers. The issue of isolation was resolved somewhat in the 1860s with more ranches in the area and a new overland trail completed to Sausalito. However, the issue of low pay near a high-priced city would plague lighthouse personnel for the rest of the 19^th century and through the beginning of the 20th.

After several years of operation, it became clear that the type of fog on the Pacific Coast often occurred at a higher elevation than the ocean fogs of the East. Often the Point Bonita light would be obscured by fog at the 300-foot level, while lower elevations remained clear. Lighthouse authorities decided that a new tower and fog signal would need to be constructed on the tip of the point at a much lower elevation. Construction proved difficult due to the precariousness of the terrain. A tunnel was eventually cut through the side of the rock in 1876 to eliminate the cliff-hanging wooden platform that skirted the 200' sheer cliff. In the early 1870's a landing was also constructed near the new lighthouse site along with a winch and lift to haul material up the side of the cliff. The new fog signal, an up-to-date steam siren, was completed in 1872. A portion of the fog-signal building fell to the sea in a winter storm two years later. In 1875 the tip of the point was leveled and the fog-signal building pulled back from the edge of the cliff. The new lighthouse began operating in 1877. It was composed of a new one-story brick base and the relocated lantern room and lens from the original lighthouse. A dome was added to the top of the former lighthouse and it became used as a daymark. The present fog-signal building was constructed in 1903, replacing the previous fog-signal buildings built in 1872 and 1875. A new Keeper's duplex was completed in 1908, the previous one having been rendered uninhabitable by the 1906 earthquake. The last major construction project on the station occurred in 1954 with the construction of the suspension bridge connected the lighthouse and fog signal with the path along the point. Years of erosion had produced an unrepairable chasm that could only be spanned by a bridge. Point Bonita lighthouse was automated in 1980, the last lighthouse in California to do so. In 1981 it was transferred to the National Park Service and was opened for tours in 1984.

Buildings and structures no longer standing on the site include the 1855 lighthouse, 1855 fog signal, Keeper's quarters, Assistant Keeper's quarters, bridge, incline tramway, 1872 fog-signal building, 1874 fog-signal building, and 1903 oil tank.

The lighthouse tower is the principal element of the light station. Its metal tower and lens date from the 1855 lighthouse constructed at the top of the hill. This portion was relocated to the top of the new one-story brick base in 1877 to allow for greater visibility at a lower elevation during the station's frequent fogs. It is a substantial structure built to contain a Fresnel lens (in this case a 2^nd order lens). Its hybrid parentage makes it a very distinctive structure. Its short stature and large lens was typical of California lighthouses built on rocky headlands. This contrasts with the little, relatively low-power lights common in New England, or the tall, narrow towers of the Middle Atlantic States and the South. Before the Coast Guard turned the structure over to the National Park Service in 1981, they restored the structure to its original appearance by removing a watch room that had been constructed on the roof of the west wing.

The present fog signal building (1903) replaced fog signal buildings that had been built in 1872 and 1874. Its construction at the very tip of the point below the lighthouse was intended to make the sound signal more audible to maritime traffic. It is similar to other fog-signal structures in its large interior space arrangement and in its exposed truss and attic beams. It is different than most other California fog signal buildings, however, in the degree of attention paid to the interior woodwork detail.

Site Description

The Point Bonita Light Station is located at the tip of Point Bonita, a rocky promontory marking the northern entrance to San Francisco Bay. The lighthouse tower and adjacent fog-signal building are built on narrow ledges blasted out of solid ridge top rock. These are the only significant structures remaining from the many older buildings and structures once constructed on the point. Fortunately, their distinctive architectural features are intact (or nearly so) and they are in quite good condition. A picturesque pedestrian suspension bridge connects the light station's buildings to the ridgetop trail. Since the station's founding in 1855 the following buildings have been constructed and demolished (or deteriorated):

Original Lighthouse 1855: Built too high for California's low fogs, the lens and lantern room were removed in 1877 and relocated atop the new one-story brick structure at the very end of the point.

Fog-Signal 1855: A cannon and powder magazine served as Point Bonita's (and California's) first fog-signal until 1857.

Keeper's Quarters 1855: Located near the original lighthouse on the higher elevation of the site. Demolished 1940.

Assistant Keeper's Quarters 1856: Located next to the Keeper's Quarters. Destroyed by the 1906 earthquake.

Bridge: In the early days of the station a wooden bridge was built around the point at the location of the present tunnel. It was anchored to the rock with huge iron rings, at least one of which is still in existance. The bridge was replaced by the tunnel in 1876 after repeated winter landslides.

Incline Tramway 1872: Installed to haul supplies from the ocean to the roadway leading to the light 100' above. The system consisted of a landing, derrick, incline, track rails and winch. Today, the incline slope is intact, traces of the landing wharf and derrick remain, and a portion of the brick turnaround for the winch remains at the top of the hill. In addition, much remains of the concrete tracks running along the roadway (today's pedestrian path) from the winch to the tip of the point.

Fog-Signal Building 1872: Located at the end of the point, this building was demolished in 1874 due to damage incurred in a landslide.

Fog-Signal Building 1874: Built on the graded site of the 1872 fog-signal building, this building was later used for housing off-and-on until its demolition in 1960. Today, the outline of its brick and concrete foundation remains.

Oil Tank 1903: A 5,000-gallon metal tank located on the hill overlooking the lighthouse and fog signal building. A pipeline was used to supply oil from this structure to the fog-signal building. The structure is in a rusted-out deteriorated condition.

In addition, the Point Bonita Lifesaving Station was located northeast of the light station on Bonita Cove. The boathouse and landing were connected to an incline railway similar to the one used by the light station on the other end of the cove. Portions of the landing and rail tracks can be seen today at the bottom of the hill.

The Coast Guard presently maintains modern electronic aids-to-navigation devices clustered below the fog signal building toward the water.

A metal lighthouse tower set atop a rectangular building with two one-story wings on the east and west facades. The building on which the tower rests is 24' X 14' and is made of white-painted brick. The north facade is pierced by two doors and two freestanding 2/2 double-hung windows. A decorative brick arch is recessed into the center of the north and south facades. The foundation is made of poured concrete. A surrounding concrete pad covers the rock ledge that the entire structure rests on. The lighthouse tower itself rests atop the railed platform created by the roof of the brick structure. The tower is a two-story twelve-sided structure containing the lamp room on the first level and the lens room (or lantern room) on the second. The first level is covered with iron plates belted together, the second level is made entirely of glass (with iron mullions). The lens room contains the original still-operating 2^nd order Fresnel lens. The structure is topped with a copper dome and ball vent common to lighthouses of this time.

The lens and tower date from the original Point Bonita Lighthouse, built higher up the hill in 1855. In 1877 this portion of the lighthouse was relocated and joined with the newly built brick base structure at the present location. The only alterations made to the structure since 1877 have been the erection of a small wooden storage shed at the northwest corner and the placement of a door and metal shed next to the lamp room to facilitate entry to the railed platform. A watch room had been built above the west wing in 1950. This was removed by the Coast Guard in 1980 to restore the building to its original appearance. This combination of lighthouses from two different periods has produced a design unique among California lighthouses.

The fog signal building is a one-story rectangular brick building built 13' below the lighthouse on the western edge of the point. The four sides of the building contain a total of seven double-hung 4/4 windows. One metal double door is found at the entrance, and one original four-panel wooden door is found several feet to the south. The top of the windows and doors are arched. The arched brickwork surrounding the doors and windows forms a decorative element of the building. A string course of bricks connecting the arches and encompassing the building further adds to the decorative brickwork. The hip roof is bisected by a smaller cross gable on the east and west facades. Original fog horns are still attached to the gable end on the west facade. The roof is covered in red-stained wood shake. The interior contains two rooms: one designed for the fog signal boilers and machinery and the other for a work room. Like similar California fog signal buildings, the roof trusses and beams are open to the floor below. Unlike other fog-signal buildings, however, there is substantial fluted woodwork surrounding the windows and doors. Most fog-signal buildings had strictly utilitarian interiors. The architectural integrity of the building is intact except for several plasterboard partitions erected in the boiler room. It also appears that a former door on the south facade has been bricked in at one time. The building appears to be in very good condition.

A tunnel was cut through the rocky promontory at Point Bonita after landslides in 1872, 1874, and 1876 had damaged the path to the point. The tunnel is 118' long, 6'4" high, 6' wide at the base, and 4' wide at the top. An iron ring, which was used to anchor the original bridge around the point, is still embedded in the rock of the north facade. In later years concrete portals were constructed at the two ends of the tunnel. A steel gate is presently located at the north entrance to control access to the tunnel.

The Searchlight Generator Building (1912) is a rectangular, one-story concrete building with two doors and four windows. The interior of the building is covered in vertical tongue-and-groove paneling. Structurally, the building is in very sound condition although many cosmetic repairs need to be made. The building was technically part of the U.S. Army's search and rescue efforts.

A suspension bridge of wood and cable connects the pedestrian path to the lighthouse and fog-signal building. This was constructed in 1954 to help solve the access problem caused by continuing erosion at the end of the point.