New Hampshire - Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse

The Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse is located at Fort Constitution State Park, New Castle, NH. It was once known as Great Island, New Castle and originally a 17th century fishing village. Today's settlement, with its narrow streets and old homes, retains much of its Colonial charm. In 1694, the British built Fort William and Mary on the northeast side of the island. The area's first navigational aid later went up at this site. The aid was little-more than a beacon on a pole.

The New Hampshire citizens replaced the primitive signal in 1784 with a small wooden tower, which they later ceded to the new federal government. The Lighthouse Service later replaced the structure with an eighty foot, wood-framed tower officially called Newcastle Point Light. But with establishment of the granite-blocked Whaleback Lighthouse at the harbor's entrance, it downgraded the New Castle Light Station to a "simple harbor beacon." Gradually deteriorating over time, the octagonal, shingled tower was replaced in 1877 by today's white, cast-iron lighthouse. It is only slightly more than half the size of its predecessor. This tower's light was automated in 1960 and flashes a green light from fifty-two feet above the fast-flowing harbor waters. I visited this lighthouse in 2001.