Tongue Point Lighthouse - The Buglight, Bridgeport Connecticut

Date added: February 18, 2023 Categories:

West elevation, camera facing east (1989)

Until the 1840s Bridgeport's Harbor development lagged behind that of neighboring cities with better natural harbors. With the advent of the railroad eras Bridgeport businessmen were awarded federal contracts to dredge a ship channel and build breakwaters so that freight and passenger vessels could connect with rail lines at Bridgeport. As a transshipment location, development of the Bridgeport waterfront was assured. In the 1870s the channel in the inner harbor was widened; in 1891 a harbor of refuge was created there behind a breakwater, constructed by Brown and Flemming of New Yorks extending eastward 11,000 feet from Welles or Tongue Point to the site of an inner beacon. Local lobbying efforts succeeded {n obtaining federal appropriations in 1893 and 1894, totalling $4,500.00 to build a special foundation on the east end of the breakwater for the construction of a cast-iron lighthouse.

Lt. Col. D. P. Heap of the Lighthouse Board supervised the installation of a 31 feet high conical lighthouses made up of flanged curved sections bolted together to form rings. This was a standard design used by the Lighthouse Board between 1873 and ca. 1910. Of two stories surmounted by a lantern, the tower's lower story was used for storage and the second story for a watchroom and record storage. Unlike many of the water-surrounded lighthouses, this smaller version of the type had no living-quarters within. Perhaps because of its short profile, it acquired the nickname of "The Bug" or the "The Buglight".

On March 1^st, 1895 a lantern light was removed and a sixth order lens lantern established in the completed lighthouse. In 1896 a landing wharf for small boats was built on the breakwater, since the keeper had to row out to perform his daily tasks.

In 1897, a Congressional appropriation of $1200 was made to establish an electrically operated gong fog-signal. This fog-signal was being developed in the General Lighthouse Depot on Staten Island. However, the invention proved unreliable. Discontinued for repair on March 30^th, 1898, it was decommissioned seven months later and replaced tn March 1899 with a 160 pound fog-bell. During fog conditions the bell was struck every eight seconds by a system of clockwork and weights. Although the mechanism was a 10,000 blow machine, it required attendance for starting and ending operation, as well as for rewinding during extended periods of fog. This clockwork mechanism along with the fog bell and the 150 pound weights, remains in place at Tongue Point Lighthouse.

In 1904 a reservation to contain a keeper's dwelling and garden was proposed in a sketch by the Third District's Engineer. The reservation was to be located at the inland end of the plank walk which had been installed in 1900. In 1906 the Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board reported that the keeper had, at this own expense, erected a small shanty in which he slept nightly "so as to start the fog signal at short notice." An appropriation of $5,000 was requested for erecting a dwellings but no such action was taken, and within a decade, plans were underway to move "The Bug" (or "The Buglight") to a new location on shore.

Ships' captains had complained about the sharp turn they had to make around the Tongue Point or Inner Breakwater on their way into Bridgeport's Inner Harbor. In 1919, 350 feet of the inner breakwater was removed and added to the outer breakwaters. A Lighthouse Department derrick was employed to move the Tongue Point Lighthouse to a new reinforced concrete foundation, located Z75 feet closer to shore. As an additional accommodation to large vessels, the 18 feet deep channel was dredged to a depth of 22 feet and a width of 300 feet.

Building Description

Tongue Point Lighthouse, also known as the Bridgeport Breakwater Lighthouse or "The Bug Lights" was established in 1894 and marks the eastern end of a point of land, Tongue or Wells Points, which extends into Bridgeport Harbor from the western shore. This small, conical cast-iron lighthouses presently painted blacks supports an octagonal lantern with a peaked roof and rests on a concrete foundation, surrounded by riprap. The lighthouse originally stood 350 feet east of its present location on a breakwater constructed in 1891. In 1919 the breakwater was demolished as a hazard to shipping, and the lighthouse moved to its present location.

The present foundation, measuring 10 feet in height, is 21 feet square at the base and 15 feet square at the top. The tower, measuring 12 feet 3 inches in diameter at the base, rises 22 feet to the lantern deck. A segmentally-arched entrance opening is located on the west side, its metal plate door sheltered by an unornamented cast-iron hood. Other architectural detail is minimal, concentrated at the upper end of the tower where the only window openings are located. Simple cast-iron brackets with open triangular centers support a lantern gallery and cover the vertical seams in the top course of cast-iron plates. At their outer edge, the brackets are joined to stanchions of the gallery railing by rods threaded through sleeves and anchored by bulbous pendants. Four evenly-spaced porthole windows are located at the level of the molded joint between the upper and middle courses of cast-iron plates; the joint itself serves as trim around the upper half of the windows. Painted or stenciled numbers which aided in on-site assembly are visible on the inside of cast-iron plates, on deck plates, and on brass or bronze lantern fittings. There is no brick lining within the cast-iron shell. A winding cast-iron stair around the outer periphery leads to the hatch door in the watchroom floor, while a curved ship's ladder provides access to the lantern from the watchroom. Through the center of the tower rises a cast-iron column which supports the floor of the watchroom. The watchroom floor is made of wedge-shaped iron segments, bolted together. The floor of the lantern, of similar construction, contains eight porthole windows to the watchroom below. Eight glass panes occupy the upper half of the lantern walls, while metal wall panels, containing two kinds of circular ventilators, occupy the lower half. A double-leafed, double-walled metal door opens onto the west side of the lantern deck directly above the lighthouse entrance. The octagonal peaked lantern roof rests on a two-part stepped metal cornice and supports a spherical ventilator on a beak molding, topped by a lightning rod. Presently, the lantern houses an automated flashing green electric light with a plastic Fresnel-type lens. It replaced the original fourth order lantern of 1894.

Some rare survivors of aids to navigation apparatus remain on site. The fog-bell stands outside the east wall of the tower. Inscribed "1881/U.S. Lighthouse Establishment," it predates the lighthouse, and most likely was brought from another location in 1899. An early fog whistle had proved inadequate and was replaced with an electric motor gong fog apparatus which had been tested at the General Lighthouse Depot in 1897. It too proved unsatisfactory and was discontinued for repair on March 30^th, 1898. Described as an electric bell-striker which operated every 30 seconds, this system finally was discontinued on October 5^th, 1898 and was replaced on March 15^th, 1899 with a 10,000 blow machine which struck every 8 seconds with a 160 pound bell. The bell-striking mechanism remains on the east side of the ground floor, while 15 of the 150 pound weights used to activate the clockwork mechanism remain within the hollow cast-iron central column or in a stack nearby. Attachments for pulleys and holes for the cords remain as well. Moreover, a large rack for the acetylene fuel tanks stands against the south wall of the tower on the ground floor. Some of its tubing remains in place.