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| Location | Fort Washington Park,Manhattan, United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°51′01″N73°56′49″W / 40.8503°N 73.9469°W /40.8503; -73.9469 |
| Tower | |
| Constructed | 1921 |
| Construction | concrete (foundation), cast iron (tower) |
| Height | 40 ft (12 m) |
| Shape | conical |
| Markings | Red (tower), white (lantern) |
| Heritage | New York City Landmark, National Register of Historic Places listed place |
| Light | |
| First lit | 2002 |
| Deactivated | 1947–2002 |
| Lens | 12 inches (300 mm) |
| Characteristic | Fl R 3s |
Jeffrey's Hook Lighthouse | |
| Built | 1920 |
| MPS | Hudson River Lighthouses TR |
| NRHP reference No. | 79003130[1] |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | May 29, 1979 |
| Designated NYCL | May 14, 1991 |
TheLittle Red Lighthouse, officiallyJeffrey's Hook Light, is a smalllighthouse located inFort Washington Park along theHudson River inManhattan,New York City, under theGeorge Washington Bridge.[2][3][4] It was made notable by the 1942 children's bookThe Little Red Lighthouse and The Great Gray Bridge, written byHildegarde Swift and illustrated byLynd Ward.
The lighthouse stands on Jeffrey's Hook, a small point of land that supports the base of the eastern pier of the bridge, which connectsWashington Heights inManhattan toFort Lee, New Jersey.
The first attempt to reduce Hudson River traffic accidents at Jeffrey's Hook was a red pole that was hung out over the river.[5] A 10 candle-power light was added to the pole in 1889 to help alert the increasing river traffic to the spit of land at night. The land around Jeffrey's Hook was acquired by the city in 1896 and later became Fort Washington Park.[5]
The early structure was built as the North Hook Beacon atSandy Hook, New Jersey, where it stood until 1917, when it became obsolete.[5] It was reconstructed at its current location in 1921 by theUnited States Lighthouse Board as part of a project to improve Hudson River navigational aids, and originally had a battery-powered lamp and a fog bell. It was operated by a part-time lighthouse keeper.[5]
Construction on the George Washington Bridge, immediately above the lighthouse, started in 1927.[6] When George Washington Bridge was completed in 1931,[7] the lighthouse navigational light was considered obsolete,[8] so the Coast Guard decommissioned it, and put it out in 1948, with the intention of auctioning it off.[5] The proposed dismantling of it resulted in a public outcry, largely from children who were fans of the 1942 children's book,The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge.[9] This led the Coast Guard to sign its deed to theNew York City Department of Parks and Recreation on July 23, 1951.[5]
The lighthouse was listed on theNational Register of Historic Places as "Jeffrey's Hook Lighthouse" in 1979,[10] and was designated aNew York City Landmark in 1991.[5] In 2002, it was relit by the city.[4][11]
Public access to the lighthouse is by theHudson River Greenway, reachable to the north by a footbridge across theHenry Hudson Parkway atWest 182nd Street andRiverside Drive, and to the south by footbridges atWest 158th Street or 151st Street.[12]
Tours of the lighthouse are given infrequently. They are arranged by the Parks Department'sUrban Park Rangers, especially on the Little Red Lighthouse Festival day in late September andOpen House New York day in October. The October Little Red Lighthouse Festivals in 2018 and 2019 were run by the organization Summer on the Hudson[13] in conjunction with the Riverside Park Conservancy[14] and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The festival was not held in 2020 or 2021 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, but it resumed in 2022.[15]
The lighthouse is an important setting in the final scenes for the 1948 filmForce of Evil, andJane Campion's neo-noir filmIn the Cut features the lighthouse as motif and as a filming location.[16]
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