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Race Rock Lighthouse

Fisher’s island, ny

The Race Rock Lighthouse marks some of the more treacherous waters on the eastern seaboard. Race Rock itself rises straight up in about seventy feet of water and its top lurks just below the surface. Wrecks were commonplace, numbering in the hundreds! The Steamer "Atlantic" broke up here in November of 1846 with a loss of  forty-five souls.

It took about seven years to build this fantastic piece of engineering and she was completed in 1878.

She is built of granite and sits on a man-made island of  riprap. Her identifying characteristics are: A flashing red light every ten seconds that can be seen from sixteen miles away. And in fog, she sounds a loud, rumbling horn.

Worth while seeing, but you need a boat and some local knowledge about the extreme currents that run through the race.