The Barnegat Inlet can be one of the most treacherous portals to the sea in the world. Ships have crashed into the rocks along its shores and sunk. Pirates from the area would lure their pursuers through the strait into the Barnegat Bay only to have their attacker's vessal meet its demise. A Lighthouse was constructed to light up Inlet in 1835. The forty-foot tower was equipped with eleven lamps and reflectors that did a less than adequate job of lighting the way for seafarers. In 1854, the beacon was replaced with a fourth order fresnel lens.
Some say this lighthouse toppled in a flood. The current structure was built in 1858 to replace the 1834 version. The project engineer was Gen. George Gordon Meade, who later was the commander who won the Battle of Gettysburg for the North. The Barnegat Light is 168 feet tall with brick walls 10 feet thick at the bottom tapering to an 18 inch thickness at the top. The tower used a five-ton Fresnel-lens. It was rotated on a bed of bronze rollers by a grandfather clock type mechanism, including a 150-pound weight suspended on a 60-foot cable. The mechanism had to be wound hourly by a crew who operated in three shifts throughout the night.
In 1927, the light was automated and shown its beacon until it was decommissioned in 1944. It was replaced by a lightship anchored off shore.
