Top 10 Lighthouses in New Jersey
New Jersey's 130 miles of Atlantic coast and the waters of Delaware Bay constitute one of the most historically significant lighthouse corridors in North America. The approaches to New York Harbor through Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook, and the trade routes into Philadelphia via the Delaware River, were the two busiest maritime passages in colonial and early federal America. Congress authorised the first lighthouse here — Sandy Hook — even before the nation had a formal lighthouse administration, and the state has never been without a major investment in maritime safety since. The towers that survive today range from the oldest lighthouse in the United States at Sandy Hook to the elegant brick cylinders at Barnegat and Cape May that rank among the finest examples of the Italianate lighthouse style. The state's lighthouse preservation community is among the most organised in the country: the New Jersey Lighthouse Society coordinates tours, maintains records, and has been instrumental in saving several structures that would otherwise have been lost.
1. Sandy Hook Lighthouse, Gateway National Recreation Area
Sandy Hook Lighthouse, completed in 1764 under the British Crown and lit on June 11 of that year, is the oldest surviving lighthouse in the United States and one of very few remaining colonial-era public buildings of any kind. The octagonal rubble-stone tower, built by merchant Isaac Conro to protect New York's commerce, stands 103 feet tall and retains its original profile. The keeper's quarters and associated structures are later additions. Its fourth-order Fresnel lens — a replacement for the original oil lamp apparatus — produces a fixed white light with a range of about 19 nautical miles. Sandy Hook's position at the northern end of the New Jersey shore, pointing toward New York Harbor, meant the tower was fought over during the Revolutionary War: the British garrisoned it throughout the conflict while American forces tried repeatedly to destroy it. The lighthouse is within Gateway National Recreation Area and is open for climbing during weekend tours organised by the New Jersey Lighthouse Society.
2. Twin Lights (Navesink Lighthouse), Highlands
The Navesink Lighthouse at Highlands, completed in 1862, is the only twin-tower lighthouse in the United States: two octagonal brownstone towers — a north tower and a south tower — connected by an arched stone keeper's dwelling of considerable architectural ambition. Designed by noted engineer Joseph Lederle, the complex was the first American lighthouse to use a first-order Fresnel lens, imported from Paris, and later the first to use electric arc lighting, in 1898. The north tower stands 73 feet and the south 66 feet above the keeper's quarters, both elevated on the Highlands bluff to a focal plane of approximately 246 feet above sea level — among the highest in the country. The Navesink lights guided countless trans-Atlantic liners into New York Harbor. The complex is now a state historic site with a maritime museum in the keeper's dwelling.
3. Barnegat Lighthouse ('Old Barney'), Barnegat Light
Barnegat Lighthouse, locally known as Old Barney, stands 172 feet tall at the northern tip of Long Beach Island and is the finest example in New Jersey of the brick lighthouse designed by Major George Meade — later a Union general at Gettysburg — in the mid-nineteenth century. Completed in 1859, the tower replaced two earlier and inadequate structures at this critical site: Barnegat Inlet, separating the barrier islands, was a graveyard of ships from the earliest European settlement. The third-order Fresnel lens originally installed has been removed; the lighthouse is now maintained as a state park. Meade's design, with its graceful brick cylinder tapering slightly toward the iron lantern room, influenced lighthouse construction throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Visitors can climb the 217 steps to the lantern gallery for panoramic views of the inlet, the barrier islands, and Barnegat Bay.
4. Cape May Lighthouse, Cape May Point State Park
The Cape May Lighthouse, completed in 1859 by contractor George Harrison under engineer William Faulkner, is the third lighthouse on this critical site — the previous two structures of 1823 and 1847 were lost to erosion and storm damage. The brick tower stands 157.5 feet tall and retains its original first-order Fresnel lens in the lantern room, a rare survival among American lighthouse towers. Its flashing white light is visible for 24 nautical miles. Cape May marks the northern side of the entrance to Delaware Bay, one of the major shipping routes to Philadelphia and Wilmington, and the light also serves the coastal traffic rounding the cape between the Atlantic and the bay. The lighthouse is managed by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities and open daily for climbing. Cape May Point State Park surrounds the tower and includes excellent birding in the migration season.
5. Absecon Lighthouse, Atlantic City
The Absecon Lighthouse, completed in 1857 to the design of General George Meade, stands in the middle of the city of Atlantic City — an urban setting that contrasts starkly with most American lighthouse locations. At 171 feet it is the tallest lighthouse in New Jersey and the third tallest in the United States. Its original first-order Fresnel lens, now installed in the adjacent museum, was one of the largest optical systems ever used at an American lighthouse. The tower marked the long shoal of Absecon Ridge, which extends far offshore and has claimed numerous vessels. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1933 when a modern automated light took over the navigation function, and the tower survived several demolition proposals before being restored in the 1990s. It is now open daily for climbing, and the restored keeper's dwelling houses a maritime heritage museum.
6. Sea Girt Lighthouse, Sea Girt
The Sea Girt Lighthouse, built in 1896, was the last staffed lighthouse built in New Jersey and one of the few in the United States to include a radio fog signal — it broadcast the first radio fog warning from an American lighthouse in 1921. The square brick tower, 44 feet tall, rises from a four-room keeper's dwelling in what appears to be a large Victorian seaside house. The lighthouse filled a gap in the lighting of the Jersey Shore between Barnegat and Navesink. Decommissioned in 1945, it was maintained as a police communications station for several decades before being transferred to the borough of Sea Girt. The Sea Girt Lighthouse Citizens Committee now manages the building and opens it for tours on Sunday afternoons in season. The interior retains much of the original domestic character.
7. Hereford Inlet Lighthouse, North Wildwood
Hereford Inlet Lighthouse, completed in 1874 in the Stick Style of Victorian architecture, is among the most unusually designed lighthouses in America. The square wooden tower rises from the centre of an asymmetrical frame dwelling, more suggestive of a large resort cottage than a government lighthouse. At 49 feet, the tower is modest; the third-order Fresnel lens and its 57-foot focal plane gave adequate range over the shoals of the inlet. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1964, fell into disrepair, and was extensively restored by the city of North Wildwood beginning in 1982. The gardens surrounding the lighthouse are among the finest maintained around any American lighthouse and the building is open daily in summer and on weekends year-round.
8. Cape May Canal Range Lights, Cape May
The approach to Delaware Bay through the Cape May Canal and its seaward approaches was marked by a series of range lights, of which several survive in various states of preservation. Range lights work in pairs: a vessel that keeps the two lights vertically aligned is on the correct course. These functional but architecturally modest structures represent the everyday infrastructure of the American coastal navigation system and several have been preserved as local landmarks along the canal.
9. East Point Lighthouse, Maurice River
East Point Lighthouse, built in 1849 at the mouth of the Maurice River on the Delaware Bay shore — geographically in New Jersey's interior bay coast — is one of the few surviving lighthouse buildings on Delaware Bay. The modest brick dwelling-tower combination is a simple Federal-style structure in contrast to the high Italianate cylinders of the Atlantic coast. The light marked the approaches to the Maurice River's oyster and fishing ports. After years of neglect it was restored by the Maurice River Historical Society and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Delaware Bay shore of New Jersey is less visited than the Atlantic coast but contains important examples of the early bay-side lighthouse tradition.
10. Chapel Hill Range Rear Light, Alloway Creek
The Chapel Hill Range Rear Light, a brick tower built in 1880 on the Delaware Bay approach to the Salem nuclear power plant's cooling intake channel, represents the industrial lighthouse heritage of the bay. The front and rear range lights that guided vessels up the shallow Delaware Bay channel to the various riverside ports along the New Jersey bank formed a dense network from the colonial period onward. Many have been demolished or replaced with automated structures, but several brick towers from the 1870s to 1890s survive along the bay shore and are protected by local historical societies.
Visiting New Jersey's Lighthouses
Sandy Hook, Cape May, Barnegat, Absecon, Navesink, and Hereford Inlet are all open for climbing or interior tours at various points throughout the year. The New Jersey Lighthouse Society (njlhs.org) coordinates annual lighthouse challenges and publishes a detailed touring guide. The Cape May–Lewes Ferry crosses Delaware Bay and passes close to Cape May Lighthouse, giving the best seaward view of the tower. Spring migration at Cape May Point (late April to late May) coincides with the lighthouse season opening and makes for an outstanding combination visit. Open the map to see the full distribution of active and historic lights along New Jersey's Atlantic coast and Delaware Bay shore.