Arecibo Light

Arecibo Light stands on Punta Morillos in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and was completed in 1898 just before the Spanish-American War shifted the island from Spanish rule to United States sovereignty. Built in a neoclassical design, it combines a rectangular keeper’s house with a hexagonal tower topped by a bronze dome. Its original third-order Fresnel lens cast a beam visible for 18 miles to warn ships along the coast. Electrified in 1931 and automated in 1964, the station later declined, and its original lens was damaged and then destroyed in the 1970s. Restored in 2001, it now functions as both an active lighthouse and a historical park.

Arecibo, Puerto Rico · United States