'The Little Red Lighthouse' under the George Washington Bridge

Under the big gray bridge sits a little red lighthouse. Hardly known and seldom seen, it sits quietly on the New York side of the Hudson, under the mighty roar of the George Washington Bridge. Immortalized in a popular children's book, it has stood as a quaint reminder of the past.

The last surviving lighthouse in Manhattan, it stands just 40 feet high and a mere 28 feet above water. It was once an important beacon for ships from the north heading out to the Atlantic, at a time when shipwrecks in the Hudson were common. Nowadays, it is a little-known tourist spot that's rarely open - for a few hours on a handful of days each year. However, each September there is a Little Red Lighthouse Festival, a folk-fest celebrating the light and its famous book, "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge," by Hildegarde Swift and Lynd Ward. "Every year we have someone read the book, like that guy from Verizon," says Urban Park Ranger Michael Corrigan. James Earl Jones? "Yeah, that guy."

Little Red is originally from Jersey, too, built in 1880 as a fog signal and lantern for ships near Sandy Hook. The Coast Guard moved it in 1921 to a jut of land known as Jeffrey's Hook, in an attempt to improve navigation on the river. But Little Red had outlived its usefulness by the time the bridge went up in 1931. The Coast Guard decommissioned it in 1948 and extinguished the light. But the book and an outpouring of support by New Yorkers saved Little Red. Legend has it that a 4-year-old was so offended, he offered to buy it. Now, it's a treasured city landmark.

"It's a neat part of history," Corrigan says. "I'm glad we kept it." So were the 100 or so visitors who dropped in on a recent Saturday morning, excited to see it open. "It's great," says biker Jeff Mathews, after climbing inside and checking out the view. "But is this the first time it's been open? I have been here so many times and never saw it opened."

Tom Offer of Oradell brought his teenage son, John, to take in the panoramic views. "Jersey people knock it, but it's a beautiful place, if you know where to look," says John Offer.

Located in Fort Washington Park at 178th Street, the Little Red Lighthouse can be a tough spot to get to, accessed only by foot or bicycle - not by car. People always ask Corrigan how to get there. He tells them 181st or 156th streets. "It's under the bridge. The bridge towers over it."

I remember that lighthouse. I first saw it in second grade, on a field trip from Corpus Christi.

The nuns had us draw a picture of it.

They were pretty impressed with my drawing, as I recall.

Stands to reason - my dad is a famous artist, and, at the time, I was taking classes in Art at the Met.

Then it started to rain, so I took some black paint and colored in the raindrops.

I think I was a realist, art-wise.

The nuns had a fit.

Then we had smores.

Ever seen a nun make smores?

The George Washington Bridge was designed with the strength to support a railroad line. And when the suspension bridge was being built, there was talk about its bare steel towers being encased in concrete or granite. But when the Great Depression hit, plans changed. "They needed to cut back,'' said Tom Meyers, Fort Lee's director of cultural affairs. "It was a good thing in the long run. The bridge has a look like no other. It has a unique beauty." Those bridge tidbits and more can be learned at "A View From the Bridge," an exhibit at the Fort Lee Museum that opened Saturday. The display coincides with the 75th anniversary of the opening of the bridge, which will be officially celebrated Oct. 25.

Black and white photos of the bridge's 1931 dedication, postcards, newspaper clippings and current photos of the span fill display cases and the museum's walls. A tin toy and soap decorated with images of the bridge can also be spotted. Even a red rug with drawings of the bridge that once filled space in The Riviera nightclub adorns the museum floor.

Fast facts

The bridge was dedicated on Oct. 24, 1931, and opened to traffic the following day.
Construction took four years, but finished eight months ahead of schedule.
At its opening, it was the longest suspension bridge ever built, spanning 3,500 feet.
The lower deck was opened to traffic on Aug. 29, 1962.
The bridge weighs 600,000 tons.
In its first year of operation, 5,509,900 vehicles crossed the bridge.
Today, approximately 108 million vehicles use the bridge annually.
Source: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

"I've known this bridge all my life,'' said Peter Rustin of Passaic, who said he often walked the bridge with his mother as a child. "The pictures are nice." Steven Lanza, of Rutherford, brought his 12-year-old daughter to the museum. Lanza, who grew up in Fort Lee, said he liked the photos, but a lot of the information was not new to him. "When you grow up in this town, you know everything about the bridge,'' he said. The exhibit has been more than a year in the making and memorabilia collecting is continuing.

Meyers and other members of the society are working on compiling digital images of pictures they have accumulated through the years to give to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The agency, which manages and maintains the bridge, lost many of its historical photos during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "They had given us copies of their photos over the years,'' he said. "This is a way for us to help them reassemble some of that collection." Meyers said the goal of the Fort Lee exhibit is to get visitors to think of the bridge as more than a means of getting into New York City. "Many people worked hard from the engineers and laborers to build this modern marvel,'' he said. "Maybe this exhibit will get people to go out and walk the bridge, a lot of people don't' get that chance."

Pam and Peter Bernardini, members of the Fort Lee Historical Society who were manning the exhibit Saturday, debated whether they would walk the bridge again. Pam Bernardini, who strolled the span when she was raising her two sons, says she has thought about it, but her husband wasn't convinced. "It's scary to walk across now,'' said Peter Bernardini. "You feel the cars and you feel the bouncing." The exhibit can be seen on the weekends and by appointment during the week through January. For information about the exhibit or other bridge anniversary events, call 201-592-3663 or visit www.fortleefilm.org.

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