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Courtesy of Coast Guard Historian's Office |
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Courtesy of Coast Guard Historian's Office |
Location: East
Side of the Newport Bridge
1887 - 1969
Lat 41
30 12 N - Long 72 20 01 W
Established: 1887
Lighthouse Constructed:
1887
Discontinued: 1969
Original Illuminating
Apparatus: Two Post Lanterns
Current Illuminating
Apparatus: None
Height: Lighthouse:
40 feet (1906)
Skeleton tower: 45 feet (1969)
None (2005)
Status: No Longer Exists
Light Characteristic:
Lighthouse: Fixed Red from the east side of lighthouse (1899)
Fixed White from the west side of lighthouse (1899)
Fixed White from
the east side of lighthouse (1906)
Fixed Red from
the west side of lighthouse (1906)
Skeleton tower:
Flashing Green every 3 seconds (1940)
Flashing Green every
6 seconds (1968)
None (2005)
Range: Lighthouse: 12½ miles (1906)
Skeleton tower:
10 miles (1968)
None (2005)
In the years before the Civil War, the Old Colony Steamboat Company
built and maintained several aids to navigation to help its ships
travel safely up and down Narragansett Bay. John Swan, an employee
of the company, was the navigational aid on the rocks. He would
row out to the rocks and sit under a shelter, blowing a horn as
a warning to oncoming steamers. The company later placed a light
on the rocks.
In 1885 the Lighthouse Board wanted to replace the Old Colony
light with a government lighthouse. It would be two years before
Gull Rocks Lighthouse was built. The A-frame lighthouse was equipped
with two post lanterns. They were hung from the gables on the
east side and west side of the lighthouse. They were replaced
by more powerful lens lanterns
in 1900. In 1928, the twin lights were replaced with a single
light on a 45 feet skeleton tower.
The light was automated in September 1960. On April 12, 1961 the
Coast Guard burned the lighthouse.
When the Newport Bridge was completed in 1969, the light was no
longer needed because boats couldn't travel under the low deck
of the bridge on the East Side of the bay and was turned off.
On January 8, 1970 a Coast Guard helicopter removed the light
and flew it the Bristol Coast Guard Depot.
Today all that remains of the lighthouse is a concrete pier.