A Bird's-Eye View of the Jersey Shore

Though the summer of 2011 is unfortunately coming to an end, there are still great deals of things people can do along the Jersey Shore for fun in the upcoming months. One such location people can visit that goes a little under the radar in the local community is the Sea Girt Lighthouse. 

This lighthouse, located at 9 Ocean Ave in Sea Girt, has been located in the borough since 1896. Though it is not a working lighthouse anymore, there are still free tours of the lighthouse that members of the local community can take every Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. Tours will continue until Thanksgiving, and will start again Easter of next year.

The lighthouse currently has 18 trustees helping run the day-to-day operations of the building, and many of these trustees come to the lighthouse every Sunday to help give tours of the building. One individual who does this every weekend is Sea Girt resident Conrad Yauch.

Yauch explained back in 1896, the federal government spent $20,000 to build a lighthouse in Sea Girt, since it would be in between the populated shore towns of Barnegat and Sandy Hook.

“This was also a live-in lighthouse,” he said, noting the person who shined the light in the lighthouse, as well as their family, lived inside the lighthouse in various living quarters.

Once visitors enter the lighthouse, they sign in to a guest book and tour the bottom floor, which has several pictures, charts and documents relating to the original lighthouse.

Yauch noted the lighthouse not only gets visitors from New Jersey and along the Eastern coast, but it also gets a lot of visitors from all over the world.

“We’ve had people from not just Florida and California visit the lighthouse, but also people from as far out as London and Germany,” he said.

He explained the lighthouse was in use until the mid-1950’s, and then the borough used it for a library and for recreation events prior to deciding to tear the building down. However, a group of residents raised enough money to save the lighthouse, and a deal was worked out where the trustees pay a $1 every year for fifty years as the lease for the building.

Once visitors finish looking at the souvenirs on the first floor of the building, they can check out a “Fresnel Lens,” the light used for the lighthouse to shine. French astrophysicist Augsustin-Jean Fresnel created this lens, which has an incredibly bright reflection depending on which way you look at the light.

Steve Kandrach, a volunteer at the lighthouse from Wall Township, showed off this particular light, as well as some documents from famous local shipwrecks like the Morro Castle wreck.

The final part of the tour is actually having the chance to go up to the tip-top of the lighthouse. Visitors can climb a ten rung ladder leading from the second floor to the top of the building, and they can stand inside the area where the lighthouse owner would stand and shine their light for passing ships.

While up in this room at the lighthouse, people can look to the left and see as far down as Asbury Park, and look to the right and see as far down as Point Pleasant. This room is located right in the middle of a glass dome and is located just about 50 feet above sea level.

For more information on the Sea Girt Lighthouse, either visit them online at www.seagirtlighthouse.com, or call them at 732-974-0514.