Cape Mendocino’s lighthouse was built for a storm-battered 400-foot cliff prone to earthquakes and landslides, so its compact iron tower and lifesaving beacon were designed to endure severe conditions. Fabricated in San Francisco in 1867, it was disassembled, shipped about 35 miles to Cape Mendocino, landed through heavy surf, hauled up the treacherous cliff, and reassembled before beginning service in 1868. The lighthouse had three levels, each with a distinct role in its operation and maintenance: a ground floor of 16 inward-leaning iron plates bolted together and to the foundation for storage, a second floor of 16 iron plates that housed the clockwork mechanism rotating the lens and opened to the balcony and upper catwalk for cleaning the glass, and a third-level lantern room where a kerosene lamp and first-order Fresnel lens produced a signal visible up to 28 miles away. Bronze handles once bolted to the outer window frames gave keepers something to hold in fierce winds, and a lightning rod rose from the top. Though not especially tall compared with many slender East Coast lighthouses, its position atop the 400-foot cliff made it one of the tallest beacons along the North American coast.