Stratford Shoal Light

Stratford Shoal Light stands on a hazardous shoal in mid-Long Island Sound between New York and Connecticut, where shallow water and shifting conditions long threatened navigation. Mariners recognized the danger as early as 1614, and efforts to mark it progressed from spar buoys in 1820 to an unreliable lightship first stationed there in 1838, which repeatedly drifted off in ice and storms. The present masonry offshore lighthouse was completed in 1877 on a small artificial island to replace the lightship. Automated in 1970, it remains an active aid to navigation and a familiar racing mark, while its location has also fueled a long jurisdictional dispute between the two states.

Brookhaven, New York · United States