Robbins Reef Light

Robbins Reef Light

Location	SW Upper New York Bay, 2.6 mi. SE of I-78 Interchange 14A, Bayonne, New Jersey
Coordinates	40°39′26.512″N 74°3′55.277″W
Tower
Constructed	1839
Foundation	Granite caisson
Construction	Brick / Cast iron
Automated	1966
Height	45 feet (14 m)
Shape	Conical
Markings	Lower half: brown upper half: white lantern: black
Heritage	National Register of Historic Places listed place
Light
First lit	1883 (current structure)
Deactivated	N/A
Focal height	56 feet (17 m)
Lens	4th order Fresnel lens
Range	7 nautical miles (13 km; 8.1 mi)
Characteristic	Flashing Green, 6s

The Robbins Reef Light Station is a sparkplug lighthouse located off Constable Hook in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States, along the west side of Main Channel, Upper New York Bay. The tower and integral keepers quarters were built in 1883. It replaced an octagonal granite tower built in 1839. The U.S. Coast Guard owned and operated the light station until the 2000s.

Position

The light is located on a small ridge of sand named Robyn's Rift by the Dutch settlers of the area. The reef is now called Robbins Reef. It is situated near the entrance to the Kill van Kull, a strait connecting New York Bay to Newark Bay. The channel is one of the most heavily used in the Port of New York and New Jersey, accessing Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal.

History

The name derives from the New Netherland era of the 17th century. In Dutch rob or robyn means seal, groups of which would sometimes lie on the reef at low tide. The structure is also called Kate's Light for Kate Walker who "manned" the station alone after the death of her husband Captain John Walker in 1886, until 1919. She rowed her children to school in Bayonne. Herman Westgate was the last keeper of the lighthouse before it was finally automated. In 2009 Robbins Reef was put up for sale under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act. In 2011, the Noble Maritime Collection, a maritime museum on Staten Island, was granted stewardship of the light station by the U.S. General Services Administration. The octagonal structure near Robbins Reef Lighthouse is not the base of the original 1839 tower but rather a sewer outfall that was constructed around 1915.

Recent Developments

Recently volunteers for the Noble Maritime Museum have been restoring the lighthouse, with the interior restoration nearly complete. A local shipping company provides periodic transportation for the volunteers. Total renovations are expected to be complete in the early 2020s, at which time the lighthouse will offer tours and even serve as a bed and breakfast.

Gallery

• 
  U.S. Coast Guard Photo from about 1950 with station boat
• 
  Lighthouse from Staten Island Ferry
• 
  In 2006
• 
  View northwest to MOTBY and Port Jersey

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Hudson County, New Jersey
• Geography of New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary

External links

• Noble Maritime Collection virtual tour of Robbins Reef Light Station
• Robbins Reef Data for station ID 8530973, Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System NOAA.
• Robbins Reef Light in NPS.
• Kate Walker, Keeper of Robbins Reef Light, 1894–1919, National Lighthouse Museum, 2001.
• Robbins Reef Lighthouse Lighthouses of the New Jersey Shore.
• Mind the Light, Katie: The History of Thirty-three Female lighthouse Keepers, Mary Louise Clifford and J. Candace Clifford, 2006. (ISBN 0-9636412-7-1)
• "3 Poems (from Robbins Reef Light)", Joel Lewis, Jacket Magazine 23, August, 2003.
• Navesink Lighthouse and Robbins Reef Lighthouse: Lighting the Way Through New York Bay, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan