San Francisco Bay Lighthouses

In 1848 a California construction worker noticed a shiny gold pebble lying on the ground. The world saw him pick it up and the gold rush started. The influx of money hungry people looking to get rich quick brought thousands of ships to the haggard coast of California and more specifically the Golden Gate Strait that led to the epicenter of the gold rush, San Francisco.


The first lighthouse commissioned on the West Coast was the Alcatraz Island Light in 1854. The original light, known as the little Gibbons lighthouse, was destroyed by an earthquake 1906. In 1909 the current 84-foot tall reinforced concrete tower and adjacent dwelling was completed.

While the bay-style dwelling has fallen into ruins, the current Alcatraz Island Light has stood for almost 100 years, through earthquakes, storms and even prison riots offering warning and welcoming to ships and boats alike who venture into the rocky strait of the Golden Gate. Until 1963 when the light was finally automated, the light was manned and maintained by a keeper.

Including the height of tower and the island, the elevation of the light is 214 feet and can be seen from 22 miles out at sea. Mariners recognize the Alcatraz Island Light house by its "signature" white flash every five seconds.



At the north entrance of the Golden Gate, and across the bay from Alcatraz, Point Bonita Lighthouse stands guard against the difficult currents of the bay waters, dangerous shoals with the large rocks, and dense fog for which San Francisco is so famous.

The lighthouse board thought this location so important to the safety of mariners that a powerful second-order Fresnel lens (Fresnel lens will be discussed in a separate post) was assigned to it.

Point Bonita was the home of the first fog signal, (an army surplus cannon that was fired every hour during heavy fog), on the west coast. In order to reach the location where the current 33 foot tower stands, a 118 foot tunnel had to be dug through solid rock, a hoisting apparatus and a bridge built, as well as an incline railway put in to bring in supplies. It took 5 year to complete the construction of the lighthouse and surrounding structures. The lighthouse went into operations in 1877.

We take the ease and instantaneousness of our lives so much for granted. We look for shortcuts in everything we do. If something is a little difficult or takes a while to do we lose our patience. Can you image how many more lives would have been lost had the people working on Point Bonita had felt that way? Once again as I stood and soaked in the beauty of the rugged coast with the lighthouse in the distance, I was in awe of the people who risk their own lives to build it in order to save the lives of others. Is there still such unselfishness in people today? I think so, look at our military men and women. They are building their own kind of lighthouses in Iraq and Afghanistan. We can only pray that the lighthouses they are building are strong enough to endure the storms for over 130 years like Point Bonita.

A few final comments about Point Bonita. The light tower has had three light signatures, a solid steady light was first, then an mechanical eclipser produced a long flashing light that was 25 seconds on and 5 seconds off. Currently the light flashes once every three seconds. Point Bonita's light can be seen from 18 miles out at sea. A keeper maintained the light until 1981 when it became the last of the California's lighthouses to be automated.

If you would like to see a few more pictures of Alcatraz and Point Bonita, click here.