What happens under the Golden Gate Bridge?
Hiding under the North side of the magnificent and iconic Golden Gate Bridge is the Lime Point Lighthouse. Used to assist in navigating boats through the thick fog, and ward them off the treacherous rocks, using it’s bright beam of light that expanded out 100 feet into the Golden Gate Strait until the 1960’s.
Lime Point wasn’t originally built as a lighthouse, but a fog siren, using two 12” steam whistles. They were put into services on the 10th September 1883. The Original buildings consisted of a one story fog signal building, a double story duplex for the two keepers and a coal shed. This was used to supply fuel for the boilers, which powered the whistles. However it was later upgraded from coal to oil in 1902, in an attempt to save money as it was consuming over 90 tons of coal a year.
In 1900, a decade after a neighbouring fog signal station, Ano Nuevo, was fitted with a light, it was decided to upgrade Lime Point along with 2 other local fog sirens in The Bay Area, this was carried out on 26th November 1900.
During it’s service it survived all sorts of dangers, from witnessing several large landslides from the overshadowing Marin hills which it sits at the foot of to “The 1906 San Francisco earthquake” which “wrecked the station’s largest water tank”. But perhaps two of the strangest weren’t Mother Nature and San Francisco testing it, but humans.
India Bear, a 440ft ship on June 3rd, 1960 crashed into the concrete causeway after straying off course. This happened regardless of the fog signal being active. The active guard at the station said he “thought the bridge had come down”. The only real damage was to station was a crushed outhouse, which was due to be demolished anyway.
The other strange danger it faced happened a week before Christmas in 1959, after an unexpected visitor threatened the coastguardsmen manning the lighthouse with a pistol. After shooting a ketchup bottle, and a phone on the wall, he demanded they hand over all their money and took their automatic rifle. He was later arrested an hour later after threatening an Army Captain with the gun he just stole.
