Point Bonita Lighthouse

Point Bonita Lighthouse is a lighthouse located at Point Bonita at the San Francisco Bay entrance in the Marin Headlands near Sausalito, California. Point Bonita was the last manned lighthouse on the California coast. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. History More than 300 boats ran aground near the Golden Gate during the California Gold Rush years, requiring a lighthouse. The original Point Bonita Lighthouse, a brick tower, was built in 1855 at above sea level with a second order Fresnel lens. This was too high. Unlike the East Coast of the United States, the West Coast has dense high fog, which leaves lower elevations clear. Since the original light was so high, it was often cloaked in fog and could not be seen from the sea. As a result, the lighthouse was moved to its current location at above sea level in 1877. To access the new site, a long tunnel was hand carved through hard rock. The lighthouse had the first fog signal on the West Coast, in the form of a 24-pounder siege gun.