Point Judith Light occupies a crucial but hazardous position on the Rhode Island coast, where the entrance to Narragansett Bay meets the eastern approach to Block Island Sound. Long important to navigation and notorious for shipwrecks, the site has had three towers: an 1810 lighthouse destroyed by a hurricane in 1815, a second stone tower built in 1816, and the present octagonal granite tower completed in 1856. Its white-and-brown paint scheme improved daytime recognition, and its fog signal was changed in 1871 from a horn to a whistle better suited to local surf conditions. Automated in 1954, it remained an important navigational aid and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island · USA