Tinicum Island Rear Range Light

Tinicum Island Rear Range Light - Paulsboro, NJ

The lower Delaware River in the Philadelphia area is not a place where you would expect to find historic lighthouses, but that’s exactly what you’ll find in the nearby village of Paulsboro, NJ. Located directly across the Delaware from Philadelphia International Airport, the Tinicum Island Rear Range Light is a significant lighthouse built in 1880 to mark a section of the navigable waterway along the Paulsboro riverfront south of Philadelphia.

So what exactly is a “rear range” light? Lights such as this one work in tandem with a second light, known as a “front range” light and when the two are aligned back-to-back in a certain orientation along the river, they combine to form a pathway for ships to follow in order to avoid navigable hazards. In this case, the tandem light setup was developed to help craft navigate around Little Tinicum Island in the middle of the river nearby. The rear range light here in Paulsboro is the more famous of the two and it is this light that is featured in this post.

Still active today, the lighthouse’s operations were automated in 1933. The light has a nautical range of 18 miles and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2005. Seasonal tours of the lighthouse are offered by the Tinicum Rear Range Lighthouse Society every third weekend of the months of April thru October. Included in the tour is a climb up the 112-step stairway to the lantern room at the top of the tower as well as inside information about its history and construction. Definitely worth a stop if you’re in the area or “just passing through”.

How to Get There:

Entry at the New Jersey Lighthouse Society webpage

Tinicum Rear Range Lighthouse Society webpage

Comments

Legend of the Ridge Route; a history of crossing the mountains between the Los Angeles Basin and San Joaquin Valley from wagon trails to Interstates

Over the past two decades I've crossed the Interstate 5 corridor from Los Angeles north over the Sierra Pelona Mountains and Tehachapi Range to San Joaquin Valley what seems to be an immeasurable number of times. While Interstate 5 from Castaic Junction to Grapevine via Tejon Pass today is known to most as "The Grapevine" it occupies a corridor which has been traversed by numerous historic highways. The most notable of these highways is known as the "Ridge Route." This article is dedicated to the Ridge Route and the various highways that preceded it. This blog is part of the larger Gribblenation US Route 99 Page. For more information pertaining to the other various segments of US Route 99 and it's three-digit child routes check out the link the below. Gribblenation US Route 99 Page Ridge Route corridor introdution The Ridge Route as originally envisioned was a segment of highway which was completed in 1915 between the northern Los Angeles city limit

Establishing the numbering conventions of California's chargeable Interstates

The Federal Highway Aid Act of 1956 brought the Interstate Highway System into existence which would largely be constructed by Federal Highway Administration fund matching. The Interstate Highway System was deliberately numbered to run opposite the established conventions of the US Route System. While the Interstate Highway numbering conventions are now well established there was a period during the late 1950s where they were still being finalized. This blog examines the history of the establishing of the chargeable Interstate Highway route numbers in California. The above blog cover depicts the Interstate Highway route numbers requested by the Division of Highways in the Los Angeles area during November 1957. The establishment of the numbering conventions of California's chargeable Interstates The Interstate Highway System was not created in a vacuum by way of the passage of the 1956 Federal Highway Aid Act. The beginning of the Interstate Highway System can be found in the

California State Route 210 (legacy of California State Route 30)

California State Route 210 is a forty-mile-long limited access State Highway located in Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County. California State Route 210 exists as a non-Interstate continuation of Interstate 210 and the Foothill Freeway between California State Route 57 in San Dimas east to Interstate 10 Redlands. California State Route 210 was previously designated as California State Route 30 until the passage of 1998 Assembly Bill 2388, Chapter 221. Since 2009 the entirety of what was California State Route 30 has been signed as California State Route 210 upon the completion of the Foothill Freeway extension. Below westbound California State Route 210 can be seen crossing the Santa Ana River as the blog cover. California State Route 30 can be seen for the last time on the 2005 Caltrans Map below. Part 1; the evolution of California State Route 30 into California State Route 210 What was to become California State Route 30 (CA 30) entered the State Highway System duri

Gribblenation

Search This Blog