Sandy Hook Lighthouse (1764)

This lighthouse was built in 1764 on a narrow, sandy strip of land near the New Jersey shore.  It is the oldest original lighthouse still in service in the USA

is the oldest standing light tower in the United States. Since 1764, the  lighthouse's unfailing beam has befriended innumerable  vessels as they have passed in or out of New York's great   harbor. Because of the risks to shipping in the treacherous waters around Sandy Hook, numerous  merchants in New York City pressed the colony's  government for the erection of a lighthouse on the   desolate point. New York's assembly answered their  pleas with an act in 1761 that authorized the holding of a  lottery to raise funds for the construction of a lighthouse.      The light, originally called the "New York Lighthouse," has served the shipping world with relatively few interruptions since its construction. During the American Revolution the Americans put it out of operation in March, 1776 so that the British could not benefit from it. Seafarers that they were, the enemy realized the light's value and restored the beacon as soon as they could. Some intrepid Americans in small boats managed to elude British warships on June1, 1776 and bombard the lighthouse with cannon, but that resulted only in minor damage to the tower