slgwv's photos with the keyword: 0098

On the north side of the entrance to the Golden Gate. It's been operating since 1855; first with whale oil (to 1870), then kerosene (to 1913), then oil vapor, and finally (since 1927) an electric incandescent lamp. It's still in operation, but is now fully automated, the last lighthouse keeper leaving in 1982. It was the last lighthouse on the US west coast to be automated. One weekend day it's partly open for tours, with docents available, and I lucked out when I happened to be there! The light is perched on some tall offshore rocks, and is accessed by a rather spectacular footbridge (left insets). At night in a storm it must have been exciting, to put it mildly! The right inset shows some gargoyle drains over the windows, which were supposed to help wash the salt off the windows, but according to the docents didn't work very well. The building below (inset below left), which is not open to the public, used to house a steam engine which (among other things) ran the foghorns. The keeper's cottage, however, was torn down. There are still foghorns operating, but they're electrically powered and on the pylons of the Golden Gate Bridge. The conditions today show why they're still necessary! Presumably the name is a partial translation of an original Spanish "Punta Bonita," "bonita" meaning "pretty" in Spanish. It was originally a diminutive of "good" and is thus equivalent to the Scottish "bonny."