Fire Island National Seashore

Fire Island is best known as one of the busiest summer destinations along the Atlantic coast, with miles of beaches and thousands of seasonal visitors. That is exactly why I chose to visit in the off-season. Without the summer crowds, I was able to experience a quieter side of the island and spend time appreciating one of its most enduring landmarks: the Fire Island Lighthouse.

Standing 168 feet tall, the lighthouse has guided ships along the south shore of Long Island since 1858. Constructed to replace an earlier tower, its distinctive black-and-white daymark became an essential navigational aid for vessels entering New York Harbor from the Atlantic Ocean. For generations of sailors, the lighthouse represented both a warning of the dangerous shoals nearby and the reassuring sight that one of America’s busiest ports was just ahead.

Fire Island itself was preserved when Congress established Fire Island National Seashore on September 11, 1964, and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the legislation into law. The creation of the national seashore came after a determined grassroots effort to protect the barrier island from overdevelopment, including proposals to build a highway the length of the island. Thanks to those preservation efforts, twenty-six miles of beaches, dunes, maritime forests, wetlands, and historic sites, including the lighthouse, remain protected for future generations