Old Loma Lantern Little Stack of Bricks

The Old Point Loma lighthouse known as light number 355 of the 12th U. S. Lighthouse District, failed to be initially completed with construction funds appropriated by Congress in the year 1854. Funds totaling $90,000 were used to build eight lighthouses up and down the west coast of the United States due to expanding trade and shipping along the west coast. The California Gold Rush of 1849 had a major impact on west coast shipping. Point Loma was the last of the first eight to be constructed on the west coast but funds ran short in the final months of construction. It sat unfinished and without a lantern, lens or lightkeeper for over a year, high atop the west hill across from San Diego Bay, today known as Cabrillo National Monument. An editorial in the San Diego Herald in 1855 called the unfinished lighthouse a "little stack of bricks" on the hill. After having additional funds granted by Congress, it was first lit and became operational at sunset on November 15, 1855. The lantern and lens had been shipped to the site from Paris.

The lantern room shown in this photo originally had a third order Fresnel lens showing as a fixed constant yellow light. Whale oil produced a yellow light compared to the later electric lights that were a pure white light. The lens was later changed out for a revolving one with alternate red and white lights. At the time it was built, the lantern room was the highest placed navigational light source serving as a lighthouse in the continental U.S. at a record 462 feet above sea level. This fact however also became its downfall in that the lighthouse was placed so high on top of the hill that eventually in March of 1891 it was closed in favor of the new lighthouse built at sea level below the high hill. The old lighthouse was so shrouded in fog and thick marine layer clouds most of the time that it was of little use as a consistent, reliable aid to navigation. During its 36 years in operational existence however it shown some 31 miles out to sea due to its height on the hill while standard lighthouses were limited to 19 miles out due to the curvature of the earth.

Photo of the Old Point Loma Lighthouse lantern room taken with a Nikon S8200, shutter released at 1/400, aperture f/3.2 with a 24mm lens, ISO 100, with scattered pattern flash.