Gateway National Recreation Area / Sandy Hook Lighthouse

The Sandy Hook Lighthouse is an extraordinary landmark along the Atlanta coast because of its age and the countless ships it has guided safely past the shoreline for more than two and a half centuries.

Standing at the tip of Sandy Hook in New Jersey, within Gateway National Recreation Area, the lighthouse was first lit in 1764, making it the oldest continuously operating lighthouse in the United States. Built of thick, locally quarried stone, its compact octagonal tower was engineered to endure punishing coastal storms. From the beginning, its purpose was practical: to warn mariners away from shifting sandbars and steer them toward the narrow entrance of New York Harbor.

This beacon watched over colonial merchant vessels and during the American Revolution, British forces occupied Sandy Hock and controlled the lighthouse. The structure survived this conflict intack, making it one of the few pre-Revolutionary navigational aids still standing today.

In 1972, the Sandy Hook peninsula became part of Gateway National Recreation Area when legislation creating the park was signed by Richard Nixon. The designation made Gateway one of America’s first major “urban national parks” and placed the lighthouse under National Park Service stewardship.