Over the past ten months, this blog has been an outlet for traveling to new and fun locations that I have wanted to visit, to assuage my wanderlust as I travel around the United States, exploring what the nation has to offer. I have taken road trips since I first earned my driver’s license at age 17, but I started this blog with the hope that I would be able to entertain and enlighten my readers, to take you along with me. Several of the trips, such as the Cape May – Lewes Ferry, the USS Olympia and Becuna, Gettysburg, the Honda Heritage Center, and the Emlen Physick Estate, have been to places that I had always wanted to visit, but never made the time. This blog gave me the motivation to explore, and then to share my explorations with you. This past weekend, I ventured to yet another spot that I had long known but had never visited: the lighthouse that is featured on a license plate.
Barnegat Lighthouse, located in the borough of Barnegat Light on Long Beach Island in New Jersey, is a historic lighthouse that was completed in 1859. Constructed to replace a previous lighthouse that was lost to erosion (the previous lighthouse literally fell into the ocean), the current lighthouse was designed by George Meade. If Meade’s name is familiar, it is because he was a general who led Union forces to victory at the Battle of Gettysburg. As built, the lighthouse is 165 feet tall, with 217 steps to the top. Originally designed to use an oil-burning fresnel lens similar to the one used in the Cape May Lighthouse, the Barnegat Lighthouse was converted to electric power in 1927. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, Barnegat Lighthouse has almost a half million visitors every year. It is one of the symbols of New Jersey, and its image is used on specialized license plates that celebrate the NJ shore (via Wikipedia).
The lighthouse is located on Long Beach Island, an 18-mile long barrier island on the eastern coast of New Jersey. The island is the home of several resort towns, including Beach Haven, Surf City, and Harvey Cedars. For all of my explorations, today marked my first time ever visiting Long Beach Island (or “LBI” as the locals say). LBI was also the site of the first New Jersey beach resort, Tucker’s Beach, which was founded in 1765. The island was particularly hard hit by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, but the damaged homes and business have mostly been repaired.
Barnegat Lighthouse is open on weekends year-round, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm. During the summer season (Memorial Day through Labor Day), the lighthouse admission is $3 for adults and children 12 and older, $1 for children ages 6 – 11, and free for children 5 and younger. During the off season (September through May), admission is free. DH continues to perform well, motoring along with no complaints or issues as the odometer now reads approximately 75,600 miles. I hope you enjoyed this short trip today, and thanks for coming along on another Voyage of DH!
‘Til next time.
The Open Road Ahead 
That’s awesome! I’m not quite as terrified of heights as you must be, but it would still be unnerving to see through the holes in the steps. How nice of someone to put up signs notifying you of how much further you had to go. I wonder how many NJ residents actually know the story behind the license plate lighthouse, and beyond that – how many have even been there! Nice trip!
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Thanks, Tyson. It was a fun day trip. And yeah, heights are definitely not my thing, yet in the past year I’ve climbed two lighthouses, a lookout tower, and ridden 250-ft tall roller coasters… just a glutton for punishment, I guess.
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