Long Island runs out of land here, and New York’s oldest lighthouse takes over from there

It’s Where the Atlantic Meets History

You drive all the way to the end of Long Island, past the Hamptons, past the last strip of shops in Montauk village, and the road just keeps going. Then the pavement curves one more time, and there it is.

A sandstone tower on a bluff called Turtle Hill, 110 feet above the water, marking the exact spot where the Atlantic Ocean runs into Block Island Sound. On a clear day, you can see Block Island from up there.

But the view is only part of what pulls people out to this point, and the story behind the tower goes back to George Washington himself.

George Washington personally picked this spot in 1792

The Second Congress authorized the lighthouse in 1792, and President George Washington worked directly with Ezra L’Hommedieu, a Continental Congress member and lawyer, to choose the site.

John McComb won the building contract with a bid of $22,300. He later went on to build Gracie Mansion in New York City.

Crews started hauling sandstone blocks from Connecticut in June 1796 and finished the tower by November.

The light first flashed in April 1797, making it the first lighthouse ever built in New York State and the fourth-oldest still active in the country.

137 iron steps up a narrow spiral staircase

The climb is tight. You wind your way up 137 iron steps through a spiral staircase that gets narrower as you go, and guides stationed at the bottom and top fill you in on the tower’s history along the way.

At the top, the payoff is a full 360-degree view of the Atlantic, Block Island Sound and the Long Island coastline stretching behind you.

On calm days, look down and you can see the visible “race” where the two bodies of water converge below. The light still flashes every five seconds, visible from 19 nautical miles out.

A 120-year-old French lens lights the tower again

For 84 years, a Fresnel lens manufactured in France in 1902 lit this tower.

The Coast Guard swapped it out for a lower-maintenance light in 1987, and the antique lens sat in the museum for 36 years.

Then on Nov. 6, 2023, a team returned it to the lantern room and relit it as part of a two-year pilot program with the Coast Guard. The Montauk Historical Society handles daily maintenance and keeps detailed logs.

Only about 50 Fresnel lenses remain in lighthouses across the country.

Shipwrecks and sea creatures inside the keeper’s dwelling

Next to the tower, the 1860 keeper’s dwelling holds the museum.

Inside, you’ll find maritime artifacts, navigation instruments, vintage photographs and shipwreck stories spread across the rooms.

The Erosion Room has detailed dioramas showing the lighthouse at four different points in its history and how the coastline shifted around it.

An interactive virtual aquarium lets local sea creatures react when you walk up to the screen.

One popular display lines up miniature replicas of every lighthouse along Long Island’s coast, each mimicking the type of light it produces.

The ocean crept 200 feet closer over two centuries

When crews finished the tower in 1796, about 300 feet of land separated it from the cliff edge. Two centuries of erosion shrank that gap to roughly 100 feet.

In the 1970s and 1980s, textile designer Giorgina Reid led volunteers in building reed-filled terraces on the bluffs to slow the damage.

Then in August 2023, the Army Corps of Engineers completed a $44 million project that reinforced about 1,000 linear feet of stone revetment with armor stones weighing 10 to 20 tons each.

The Montauk Historical Society added another $2 million in renovations to the tower and keeper’s residence.

Walk the rocky shore below the bluffs

Montauk Point State Park wraps around the lighthouse with trails running along the coastline.

You can walk down to the rocky shore below the tower, where Atlantic waves crash against the newly reinforced revetment stones.

From the bluffs above, the lighthouse sits framed against open ocean from angles you won’t get anywhere else. Picnic tables sit under pine trees inside the park.

The park stays open year-round, and winter visits hit different than summer, with fewer crowds and bigger skies.

Five species of seals show up every winter

From November through April, seals migrate south from arctic and subarctic waters and haul out on the rocks near Montauk Point. Up to five species show up along the shore.

The Seal Haul Out Trail is a flat 1.6-mile round trip through forest that drops you at a beach observation point. State park naturalists lead guided seal walks during winter months.

Low tide with winds under 15 mph gives you the best viewing. Bring binoculars and keep your distance from the animals.

Striped bass runs bring anglers to the rocks every fall

Montauk Point ranks as one of the best surf fishing spots in the Northeast, and the striped bass runs in fall draw anglers from across the region.

The newly reinforced revetment stones along the base of the bluffs give you better access to casting spots than before. You’ll need a valid New York State fishing license if you’re 16 or older.

If surfing is more your thing, you can ride the waves at the Point from Dec. 15 through March 31, when the water is cold and the lineups are thin.

Cold War bunkers and a radar tower at Camp Hero next door

Camp Hero State Park sits right next to Montauk Point and covers 754 acres of forest, trails and ocean bluffs.

The U.S. military built the site in 1942 as a coastal defense station to protect New York from potential invasion.

You can still see concrete artillery bunkers and a Cold War-era radar tower that are part of a registered national historic site.

Hiking trails wind through the woods and along the cliffs with views of both the Atlantic and the lighthouse. The two parks share a vehicle entrance fee, so you can hit both in one trip.

Hawks in fall, seabirds year-round, deer on the trails

The bluffs and coastline at Montauk Point sit right in the path of spring and fall bird migrations. Hawks move through the area every autumn, and seabirds and waterfowl stick around all year.

Deer roam the wooded trails of both parks, and you’ll likely spot a few if you walk quietly. Where the ocean meets the sound, the views shift constantly with the tides, light and weather.

Come in winter for the quietest experience, with dramatic skies overhead and seals hauled out on the rocks below.

Still guiding ships after 225 years of storms and erosion

This tower has stood through more than 225 years of nor’easters, hurricanes, two world wars and relentless coastal erosion.

It holds a designation as a National Historic Landmark, one of only 12 lighthouses in the country with that distinction.

The return of the Fresnel lens in 2023 brought back a beam of light that hadn’t shone from this tower since the 1980s. And it still works as an active aid to navigation, guiding ships the same way it has since 1797.

The history, the ocean, the wildlife, the trails, they all come together at this one point of land.

Visit Montauk Point Lighthouse in New York

You can find the Montauk Point Lighthouse at 2000 Montauk Highway, right at the tip of Long Island.

The Montauk Historical Society runs the museum and tower, and they’re open daily from early April through September, with reduced days into November.

General admission runs $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $5 for kids under 12. Hours typically run from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with extended weekend hours in summer.

Check the official website before you go, since the schedule shifts by season.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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