CABRILLO The Old Point Loma Lighthouse Symbol of the Pacific Coast's first Lighthouses

Point Loma is a long finger of land protecting San Diego Harbor on the west. Standing near the end of Point Loma one has the sensation that it juts out into the Pacific Ocean. Point Loma is a high ridge of land, its crest ranging from about 300 feet above sea level to 420 feet where the old lighthouse rests. On its western side, where the Pacific Ocean crashes furiously against its edge forming a rugged coast line, Point Loma slopes gently back several thousand feet and then rises sharply to the undulating crest. On the bay side it falls off precipitously to about 100 feet above sea level where once again it gently slopes to the water's edge.

The view from Point Loma has been rated one of the three great harbor views in the world, taking in a vast panorama of sea, islands, coast, harbor, land, and mountains. A rugged, rocky coast formed by the not so gentle Pacific, and a picturesque scene of the old, but still active light station give an air of solitude despite the encroachments of civilization. In the center of this last semblance of the past is Cabrillo National Monument, and within the Monument is the oldest structure on Point Loma—the old lighthouse.

When the lighthouse was built in 1854 Point Loma was virtually uninhabited. The small settlement at Roseville was barely part of Point Loma, and there probably was fishing and whaling at Ballast Point. But these were the only places of human activity. There were no roads; only trails, probably originally used by the native Diegueno Indians, sliced through the chaparral.

The view from Point Loma was as spectacular then as it is today. To the north and east small clusters of houses and other buildings could be seen here and there. The main part of San Diego was still in Old Town, then nothing more than a village. The present center of San Diego was just getting a start. Much of North Island was under water, especially at high tide. The shores of the harbor were less regular than today, and rowboats once tied up where Highway 101 now runs.

During the Spanish and Mexican periods in California history there was no lighthouse at San Diego, nor at any other spot along the west coast. It is reported, however, that when a supply ship was expected from Mexico a lantern was hung on a stake at Ballast Point. Until the Americans came, as a result of the Mexican War and the Gold Rush, no thought was given to permanent aids to navigation for the Port.

To understand the problems of building the west coast's first lighthouses one needs to know something of the administrative history of the United States' aids to navigation. Prior to the American Revolution the individual colonies erected, maintained and operated the lighthouses within their territories. But on August 7, 1789, shortly after the establishment of the Federal Government, Congress passed an act assuming for the central Government responsibility for lighthouses and other aids to navigation. Between 1789 and 1795 the states turned over their lighthouses to the Federal Government. Until 1820 the duty of supervising lighthouses and other navigational aids was vested in the Commissioner of Revenue and the Secretary of the Treasury. In 1820 the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury Department was given the task of supervising all aids to navigation. During the reign of the Fifth Auditor as Superintendent of Lights, it is apparent that aids to navigation failed to receive vigorous leadership.

Complete dissatisfaction with lighthouse administration was expressed in 1851 when Congress appointed a board to study the lighthouse problem. A long report resulted which recommended, among other things, that a permanent Lighthouse Board be appointed to administer navigational aids in the United States. Congress acted on this recommendation in 1852, and a nine-member board was established with the Secretary of the Treasury as president and Admiral William B. Shubrick as its first chairman. The board divided the country into twelve districts, the Pacific Coast being the 12th Lighthouse District. An Inspector was appointed in each district and "charged with building the lighthouses, with keeping them in repair, and with the purchase, the setting up, and the repairs of the illuminating apparatus."

The direct supervision of lighthouses devolved upon the various Collectors of Customs, and those collectors who had lighthouses in their district held also the appointive job of Superintendent of Lighthouses. By 1854, O. S. Witherby, the Collector of Customs for San Diego, was appointed Superintendent of Lights for Point Loma and Point Conception.

Until the 1850's, nearly every lighthouse in the United States used a number of Argand lamps and parabolic reflectors for illumination. These lamps were placed "side by side around the circumference of a circle," and the number of lamps used depended upon the arc of the horizon it was desired to illuminate. For years a bulls-eye magnifying lens was used on each lamp, but these lenses were practically useless, and in 1840 they were removed, leaving the reflectors.

This system, which had become known as the American system, had but one virtue—the lamps were inexpensive. But their faults were legion: They were complicated, they used a vast amount of oil, they required constant attention, and, most important of all, they produced relatively little light.

In 1822 Augustin Fresnel, a French physicist, developed a lens apparatus which was to revolutionize lighthouse illumination. A Fresnel lens is like a glass barrel whose outer surface is made up of prisms and bulls-eyes. In a revolving or flashing light, the bulls-eyes are surrounded by curved, concentric prisms, concentrating the light of a central lamp into several individual beams, radiating like the spokes of a wheel. In the fixed, or steady light, the bulls-eyes become a continuous "lens belt," with the prisms parallel to it, producing an uninterrupted, horizontal sheet of light.

Fresnel lenses were classified into seven orders. The order was determined by focal distance—that is, the distance from the illuminant to the lens. Orders of Fresnel lenses are as follows:

The United States was slow to adopt the Fresnel lenses, and for years a controversy raged in this country over the merits of the old and new systems. Finally, in 1841, the United States purchased its first Fresnel lens and installed it at Navesink Light, New Jersey, to test the new system. The Fifth Auditor conducted the experiment with all deliberate speed (the accent being on deliberate); 10 years later there were only three light stations in the country which had Fresnel lenses. On March 3, 1851, Congress expressed confidence in the new system by approving an appropriation bill which included permission for the Secretary of the Treasury to place the Fresnel lens system in new lighthouses, in lighthouses not having lenses, and in lighthouses requiring new ones. Congress' wisdom was supported a year later when the board, created to study the lighthouse system in the United States said: "The Fresnel lens is greatly superior to any other mode of lighthouse illumination, and in point of economy is nearly four times as advantageous as the best system of reflectors and Argand lamps." In May 1852 the first chairman of the Lighthouse Board said the "Fresnel Lens in useful effect, brilliancy and economy is superior in its different orders to any combination, number and size of the best parabolic reflectors."

Despite this strong support for the Fresnel lens, the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury clung tenaciously to his Argand lamps and as late as 1852, in what was one of his last acts as general superintendent of lights, recommended that the proposed lighthouse at San Diego be illuminated with twelve lamps and twelve 16-inch reflectors. His reluctance to give up Argand lamps explains, to a great extent, the slowness of the United States in adopting the infinitely superior lighting system.

With the establishment of the Lighthouse Board in 1852, however, the proponents of the Fresnel apparatus were in the saddle, and they were anxious to carry out the intention of Congress and install the new system. The board soon began to place Fresnel lenses in lighthouses, and by 1859 the Argand lamp and reflector system had been almost entirely replaced throughout the country. Despite the higher initial cost of the system, the Fresnel lenses, because of their lower consumption of oil, paid for themselves within a few years.

Perhaps the outstanding characteristic of the Fresnel equipment was that it was next to impossible for a lighthouse keeper to make a mistake. As one historian succinctly summed it up:

The adoption in this country of the Fresnel Lenticular apparatus made it possible for a light keeper of average capacity to keep a good light, and impossible for him to keep a bad one, unless by violation of plain rules and avoidance of routine duties.

For many years the lamps in American lighthouses burned whale oil. In the early 1840's this was still a satisfactory fuel since the price was only 55 cents per gallon. Soon afterwards, however, the supply of sperm oil began to diminish, and at the same time the use of sperm for manufacturing purposes increased. The result was a steady rise in price, and by 1854 sperm oil brought $1.38 per gallon. This increase was of concern to the Lighthouse Board, and it soon began to look about for a substitute fuel.

The Board turned first to colza, or, rapeseed oil. In 1852 Lt. Washington A. Bartlett, USN, was in France contracting for the lenses for the proposed Pacific Coast lighthouses, and while there he gathered information on the use of colza oil as an illuminant. Subsequent tests by the Lighthouse Board revealed that colza oil was ideally suited for lighthouse purposes; it was as good as sperm and cost only half the price. By the late 1850's, colza oil was being introduced in United States lighthouses. In 1861, 5,000 gallons were purchased, and in 1862, 12,000 gallons. There was a fly in the oil, however. Not enough rape (wild cabbage) from which rapeseed was obtained, was grown in the United States to supply the needs of the Lighthouse Board. The board at first had thought that by creating a market, farmers would be encouraged to grow more of the plants. But the farmers tailed to follow the script and grew only enough of the plants to provide for the lighting of homes and by no means enough for general adoption in the lighthouse service.

Meanwhile, further experiments were being conducted with lard oil because of the interest of Chairman of the Committee on Experiments Joseph Henry, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Professor Henry personally conducted the experiments with lard oil and reported that he found it to be highly satisfactory in the Fresnel apparatus and in the Franklin lamp "in which the combustion is carried on at a high temperature . . . ." Moreover, lard oil yielded more light than sperm oil. Tests had been run on lard oil before, but as a fuel it was found unsatisfactory because the first experimenters, as Professor Henry later found, had used too low a combustion rate. As a result of Henry's report, lard oil was soon introduced, and by 1867 it had supplanted sperm oil as the principal illuminant in light houses. Colza oil continued to be used in smaller lamps.

In the 1870's, experiments were once again conducted for a better fuel. This time the substance tested was kerosene, a mineral oil refined from petroleum. It was found satisfactory and began being substituted in 1880. By 1885 it was in general use in lighthouses. In 1880 the Lighthouse Service purchased 48,000 gallons of mineral oil. Nine years later the annual purchase totaled over 330,000 gallons as compared with 16,000 gallons of lard oil in the same year. Varieties of refined petroleum remained the principal illuminant in most west coast lighthouses until the 1920's. The new Point Loma lighthouse, for example, was converted from kerosene to electricity in 1926.

A distorted account of the use of whale oil as a fuel in the Point Loma lighthouse has been perpetrated by many writers. It has been contended that whale oil obtained from the shore whaling establishments at Ballast Point was used at the nearby Point Loma lighthouse. Such was not the case. Oil for all lighthouses was purchased under one contract by the Lighthouse Board, and it had to meet exacting specifications. Moreover only sperm oil was used, and the sperm whale was not taken by the San Diego shore whalers or other shore whalers on the Pacific Coast.

Shortly after Mexico's cession of California to the United States, pressures from west coast shippers on their Congressmen and the urgings of Federal officials such as General Persifor F. Smith strongly underscored the desire and need for navigational aids on the west coast. In 1848, Congress had authorized several lighthouses for the Pacific Coast in the bill establishing the Oregon Territory, but the sum provided was wholly inadequate. It was 2 years later that Congress finally made a realistic effort to get the west coast lighted. On September 28, 1850, the 308th anniversary of Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo's discovery of the California coast, Congress authorized a number of lighthouses for the west coast. Six lighthouses were for California: at Alcatraz Island and Battery (or Fort) Point in San Francisco Bay; on Farallon Islands off San Francisco; at Point Pinos near Monterey; at Point Conception; and at San Diego. Three lighthouses were authorized for the Washington coast at Cape Flattery, Cape Disappointment, and New Dungeness.

Once Congress designated the places where lighthouses would be established, the selection of the actual sites on the west coast was left in the hands of the Coast Survey. On May 29, 1851, the first issue of San Diego's first newspaper, the Herald, carried the announcement that

The officers of the U. S. Coast Survey are now actively engaged in the survey of the Harbor preparatory to the selection of a site for the Government Light House at this point.

The following month the Chief Topographer of the party, A. M. Harrison, wrote to the Superintendent of the Coast Survey, A. D. Bache, recommending a spot near the end of Point Loma, 422 feet above sea level, as the site for the lighthouse. He said materials could be landed at La Playa and easily hauled to the site. It would be necessary to bring all materials for the structure from some other place, he noted, since there was "nothing in the region which could be turned to advantage." As an afterthought, Harrison said that during his stay the fogs were frequent and heavy. Bache wrote back to Harrison inquiring as to whether the high point recommended would not result in the fog too frequently interfering in the normal functioning of the light. Harrison replied that fog might be somewhat of a problem, but the Point Loma site was still the best one. Bache then concurred and transmitted the site recommendation to the Secretary of the Treasury. It is interesting to note that 40 years later, in 1891, the Point Loma light was moved to a much lower point, solely because of the fog which often obscured the higher light. Bache's hunch was correct. In Harrison's defense, however, it should be mentioned that the site he chose was the only one which would permit the lighthouse to serve as a coastal light and to some extent as a harbor light, both of which San Diego needed.

Ownership of the selected site caused little concern; it already belonged to the Federal Government. In 1852 the Secretary of War recommended to President Millard Fillmore that a military reservation be set aside which was

To include that portion of the Peninsula lying on the west side of the entrance to the Harbor, which shall be included between the southernmost point of the peninsula (Punta de Soma Loma) and a line drawn across said peninsula from the harbor to the Ocean at the distance of one and a half miles above Punta de Guanos [Guijarros].

The President approved the recommendation, and he ordered the establishment of the reservation. This reservation included the Point Loma lighthouse site which the Coast Survey had selected; the site, however, was not officially reserved for lighthouse purposes until September 11, 1854.

After some difficulty, the Secretary of the Treasury was able to locate a firm interested in building lighthouses on the west coast. The firm was composed of two partners, Francis A. Gibbons and Francis X. Kelly, both of Baltimore, Maryland. The agreement these two entered into with the Government, dated April 20, 1852, stipulated that the lighthouses to be constructed were to be at Alcatraz Island, Battery Point (Fort Point), Southeast Farallon Island, Humboldt Harbor, Monterey, Point Conception, and San Diego on the California coast and at Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia River. The specific site of each place was to be designated by the U.S. Coast Survey. For each of the California lighthouses, the contractors were to receive $15,000, payable as each lighthouse was completed and accepted, and for the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, they were to receive $31,000; in other words the eight lighthouses were to cost $136,000. The lighthouses were to be completed by November 1, 1853, but in a supplement to the contractors, the time was extended to May 1, 1854.

The contractors soon began laying plans to construct the lighthouses. They purchased in Baltimore a barque named the Oriole, 1,223 tons burden, to transport materials and workers to the west coast. They hired 14 mechanics in Baltimore: 2 bricklayers, 2 carpenters, 1 painter, 1 blacksmith, 1 plasterer and bricklayer, 2 stonemasons, and 5 workmen. In addition, William H. Hemmick was employed as clerk and disbursing agent, Roger J. Mahon was "to superintend the building of [the] eight lighthouses," and William J. Timanus was appointed to act as contractors' agent, keeping the books and making "all disbursements and purchases connected with the work . . . ."

Material for the lighthouses, which included everything for building them except brick and lime, was collected and loaded aboard the Oriole. The ship departed Baltimore Aug. 12, 1852, and arrived in San Francisco January 29, 1853; an advance party had arrived the previous month and began laying foundations for the Alcatraz and Fort Point Lighthouses.

With the arrival of the main party work began in earnest and within a few months both lighthouses in San Francisco Bay were completed. Following the construction of the one on Farallon Islands, work began on the Point Pinos Lighthouse. The contractors next set their sights on the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, but misfortune befell them when the Oriole sank in the mouth of the Columbia River and took with her all the material for the remaining four lighthouses. Fortunately, no lives were lost. This disaster, of course, delayed the contractors; but as rapidly as they could, they gathered more material and went about completing their contract. To expedite work they placed the construction of the Cape Disappointment and Humboldt Harbor Lighthouses under the supervision of Mahon, while Timanus was designated to supervise work at the Point Conception and San Diego Lighthouses.

The location of the Point Loma lighthouse was a matter of dispute from shortly before the arrival of the construction crew on the west coast in January 1853 until nearly the end of that year. Although the Coast Survey party had concluded that the logical place was near the end of Point Loma, the contract with Gibbons and Kelly merely said San Diego. The contractors objected to the Point Loma location because of the cost of building a road and bridges to haul materials to the site. After considerable disputing with the Lighthouse Board, and rejecting an option to drop their contract, Gibbons and Kelly finally went ahead with construction in April 1854.

While the hassle over the location of the Point Loma lighthouse was going on, local people were beginning to wonder when the contractors were to commence operations in San Diego harbor. As the lights farther north were completed, jealousy began to manifest itself; and in 1853 the editor of the local paper complained: "The appropriation was made by Congress some three years ago, and as yet, there has not been a blow struck." It was to be nearly a year after this remark before that first blow was finally struck on a lighthouse for Point Loma.

At last, on April 7, 1854, the schooner Vaquero arrived from San Francisco with materials for the lighthouse at Point Loma, and within a week work was begun. Bricks, cement, lime and lumber were landed from the Vaquero at Ballast Point and then hauled to the top of Point Loma over a road which had taken 18 of the contractors' men 35 days to construct. The bricks were used to construct the tower; sandstone for the dwelling was obtained on Point Loma, apparently being quarried near Ballast Point. Tiles for the basement floor were obtained from the ruins of the old Spanish Fort Guijarros situated at the hilt of Ballast Point. Upon the chaparral covered summit of Point Loma water was not available; consequently, in order to moisten their mortar and plaster, the builders had to haul water from a well at La Playa, a distance of about 7 miles. During the construction a reporter for the San Diego Herald visited the site and talked to Timanus, who gave him a description of the structure contemplated:

The walls will be 20 feet high from the foundation, and the entire building 20 feet wide by 30 feet long. There will be a cellar of 6 feet in the clear, the main building will be 9 feet 2 inches in the clear, and the attic 3-1/2 feet. The 'tower' will be situated directly in the middle of the building and will be 10 feet in diameter, thus leaving on each side rooms of 14 to 20 feet. A spiral staircase will lead through the tower to its height, which is to be 33 feet from its base, thus there will be an elevation of 433 feet from the level of the sea. A kitchen and other out offices are also to be erected of wood in the rear, and when completed will form a useful ornament.

Unfortunately, no accounts of the actual activities in the construction of the lighthouse exist, and no reliable record can be found stating precisely when the structure was completed. Unquestionably, the work was completed prior to August 26, 1854, for on that date the Collector of Customs in San Diego wrote the Lighthouse Board that the Inspector had examined and received the lighthouse on behalf of the Government.

Initially the Point Loma lighthouse, like all the other lighthouses except Cape Disappointment, was to cost $15,000. It wound up costing nearly $30,000.

In the meantime, Lt. Washington A. Bartlett, USN, had been dispatched by the Secretary of the Treasury to France to contract for the manufacture of illuminating apparatuses for the Pacific Coast lighthouses. Shortly after arriving in Paris he entered into a contract with Sautter & Co. to manufacture two, third order illuminating apparatuses: one for the Fort Point lighthouse and one for the Alcatraz Island lighthouse. The one for Alcatraz cost about 24,324 francs.

Bartlett reported the costs of two orders of the Fresnel system as follows:

Bartlett requested and, at the recommendation of the Lighthouse Board, was granted permission to contract with Sautter & Co. for the other six illuminating apparatuses for the Pacific Coast. He purchased first order lenses for Point Loma, Point Conception, the Farallons, and Cape Disappointment; a second order light for Point Pinos; and a third order one for Humboldt Harbor.

In April 1853 the first two lenses ordered, the ones for Fort Point and Alcatraz, arrived in New York and were immediately transshipped to San Francisco. They were received by the collector in that city around the first of October. The other lanterns and lenses did not arrive until over a year later; the first order Point Loma lens and the third order Humboldt Harbor lens did not arrive until early 1855.

When the decision was reached to install the Fresnel lens system in the Pacific Coast lighthouses, the building contractors were relieved of responsibility for the illuminating apparatuses. For a time the collector in San Francisco felt that the contract required Gibbons and Kelly to furnish "artisans" to put up the illuminating equipment. However, due to the delicacy of the new system and the possibility that the contractors would send poor workmen who might permanently damage the equipment, the collector recommended installing the illuminating apparatuses under a separate contract, using local talent. The Lighthouse Inspector for the west coast, Capt. Henry W. Halleck, concurred with him. The Lighthouse Board also felt that it was incumbent upon the contractors to install the Fresnel system, but they did not press their contention too vigorously, and, consequently, from the beginning the lighting systems in the Pacific Coast lighthouses were added by separate contracts.

The first Fresnel lens installed and lighted on the west coast was that at Alcatraz Island. It was exhibited on June 1, 1854. Removed from the lighthouse in 1902, the lens was later displayed at the Panama-Pacific Exposition and thereafter was apparently placed in storage. It was declared surplus in 1947 and acquired by C. H. Ohlson of Almeda who later donated it to Cabrillo National Monument. The lens is now part of the park's study collection.

It should be kept in mind that developments taking place regarding lighthouses on the west coast were playing against a background of administrative change in this country's management of its aids to navigation. The Lighthouse Board wasn't established until October 1852, and all lights on the California and Oregon coasts were "under the special direction of the Secretary of the Treasury until transferred, December 22, 1852, to the Lighthouse Board." Probably partially due to this administrative limbo and partially due to converting to the Fresnel lens system, some confusion resulted as to the order, or size, of these early lights.

Although Point Loma wound up with a third order lens, early reports and papers concerning west coast lighthouses are sprinkled with references to a first order system for that light. It all began when A. D. Bache, as Director of the Coast Survey, recommended a first class seacoast light for Point Loma. He was obviously thinking in terms of the Argand lamp and parabolic reflector since his recommendation was made in 1851 before the advent of the Lighthouse Board, and since the contract let for building the eight lighthouses at first called for the illuminating apparatus to be lamps and reflectors. When it was finally decided to install the Fresnel system, the Lighthouse Board, perhaps thinking in terms of equality of orders between systems, let a contract to L. Sautter in Paris for a first order lens for Point Loma.

Actually if the Board wanted a light equivalent to the best lamp and reflector arrangement, it needed only to secure a third order Fresnel lens. Fresnel had conducted comparative experiments and satisfied himself that his third order lens was better than a first class reflector system. Lt. Washington A. Bartlett, the Lighthouse Board's agent sent to procure lens in Paris, stated that a third order Fresnel lens was better than any reflector seacoast light on the United States' Atlantic coast except the Boston Light, and it was the equal of that light.

With the general administrative confusion befogging the country's lighthouse service, it is no wonder that mix-ups occurred, especially regarding illuminating apparatuses. After all, between the two contending groups, the struggle over lighting systems symbolized so dramatically the difference between the moribund, old administration of the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury and the progressive, new administration of the Lighthouse Board.

After the construction of the lighthouses the lighting of them moved at a snail's pace. Although the delay can be blamed to a great extent upon the problem of getting the Fresnel lenses to the west coast, a complicating and important factor was the ineptitude and lack of interest of the first and second lighthouse inspectors assigned to the Pacific Coast. The third inspector was Maj. Hartman Bache, who had competence, energy, and knowledge; he had been transferred from a lighthouse district on the east coast. To him should go a great share of the credit for getting the west coast lighted.

Shortly after he arrived on the Pacific Coast on June 30, 1855, Bache began to take action. He decided to make the Point Loma lighthouse a third order rather than a first order light, since the tower was only large enough to support a third order apparatus and that size was all that was necessary for the purpose the light was to serve. Toward the end of July, Samuel Franklin was dispatched southward with the third order lantern and lens originally intended for Humboldt Harbor. He was instructed to make what changes were necessary in the Point Loma tower so it would receive the lantern. With him went Joseph Smith, who apparently was a mason. On August 11, 1855, the San Diego Herald announced:

The Schr. Gen. Pierce, Capt. Badger, which arrived on Friday morning last (Aug. 3), brought down the lantern and other fixtures for the Lighthouse on Point Loma, which will be put up immediately, under the superintendency of Messrs. Smith and Franklin, who came as passengers on the schooner for that purpose. Although the work will be commenced at once, we understand that it will require some two or three months for its completion, on account of the alterations and repairs necessary to be made on the house. We may expect to see the light in operation about the first of November.

Major Bache visited Point Loma on September 5 and reported:

The coping course of stone had been removed, and, after raising the tower two bricks in height, to give the domical arch sufficient thickness, were replaced, and cramped with iron. The holes for the uprights of the lantern, and the channels for the brackets of the gallery, had been cut to receive them. The sleeping drum and iron manhole, to replace the one of wood, deficient in size, were also set in the domical arch—the top of which was leveled off and well coated with cement. The lantern and lighting apparatus, which had reached the lighthouse, with slight exceptions, in perfect order, were in course of cleaning, preparatory to putting up. The dwelling is of stone, and, with the exception of the mortar, which is very bad, is quite a creditable piece of work. The tower is of brick. The mortar is not only bad, but the brick itself of such poor quality, that in places they have wasted away to a depth of a quarter of an inch to two inches. The pointing, both in the dwelling and that part of the tower exposed to the weather is entirely gone. Directed the deficient bricks in the tower cut out and replaced by good ones, and then so much of it as rises above the roof of the dwelling, as well as the brick eaves of the latter, plastered or rough-cast with cement; also the stone work of the dwelling pointed anew.

In addition he ordered the cistern, which had been reported as not holding water, to be "raised by laying a pavement of brick in cement, and then coating the entire interior with the same material." The cistern would hold only 1,240 gallons, a quantity wholly inadequate to supply the keepers for a year. As a temporary expedient he suggested using casks to hold extra water, "leaving the question of an additional cistern for future consideration." He also ordered the tin roof of the dwelling painted red.

Bricks to repair the tower were purchased locally from Thomas Whaley's brickyard at La Playa. Harvey Ladd, who had come to San Diego with the Mormon Battalion, was hired as a mason. Work progressed well, and around the first of October Franklin left for Point Conception to install the lantern there. Joseph Smith was left at Point Loma to wind up the work and instruct the keepers in the operation of the illuminating apparatus.

On seeing the work accomplished the San Diego Herald said, "Those employed in putting up the light deserve credit for the manner in which the work has been accomplished and the short time occupied in doing it." Major Bache ordered the keeper, James Keating, to display the light on November 15, which was 10 days short of a year since the Herald had complained about the slowness of getting a light "for the little stack of brick on Point Loma."

At 15 minutes before sunset on November 15, 1855, the light keeper traced the lucerne around the wicks of the lens' lamp, and the Point Loma lighthouse blinked to life for the first time. As the night blotted out the day the soft golden glow became more prominent, and the good people of San Diego saw for the first time what they were to see every night, except in times of fog, for the next 36 years.

If there was doubt in anyone's mind about the adequacy of a third order Fresnel light as a coast light, it was erased within a few months. Two weeks after the Point Loma light was first exhibited a ship captain reported to Major Bache that he had seen the light at more than 25 miles. Three months later the skipper of the Golden Gate said he saw the light at 39 miles.

While the lantern was being placed on the tower at Point Loma Major Bache had recommended building a road from La Playa to the lighthouse. Such a road, Bache felt, would better facilitate the hauling of supplies and, at times, water from La Playa to the site. The necessity of the road was apparent, and in fiscal year 1857, $1,500 was spent to construct one. The road used by the builders had run from Ballast Point in a zig-zag fashion up to the crest of Point Loma at a place almost even with Ballast Point. The La Playa road ran back from the lighthouse along the crest of Point Loma for about 2 miles and then began a straight, gradual descent to La Playa.