Travel America: The lure of a lighthouse

LIGHTHOUSES HAVE A HYPNOtic effect. Even in broad daylight with their lights turned off, they capture our attention. People climb well over 100 stairs just to get a view from the top.

For some devotees, lighthouses are a true passion. They decorate their homes with lighthouse memorabilia, put bumper stickers on their cars, and wear clothes emblazoned with their favorite lighthouses. There's even a catalog from the Lighthouse Depot (800-758-1444) devoted to lighthouse merchandise.

The commercial side notwithstanding, lighthouses have a somewhat spiritual appeal. It's a story as old as travel itself. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world was the lighthouse in Alexandria, Egypt.

The oldest operating lighthouse in America is the one at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, which guards the entrance to New York harbor. It's the only lighthouse remaining from the colonial period, according to Tom Laverty, president of the New Jersey Lighthouse Society.

All together, New Jersey has

19 lighthouses, including several famous ones. The Cape May lighthouse stands at the tip of America's original seaside resort. The Atlantic City lighthouse shows how far we've come--it shares the waterfront with high-rise casino hotels.

Not all lighthouses are located on the sea. Some are on rivers, like the Hudson River. Others are far inland, such as the ones on the Great Lakes. In fact, Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state, with over 120. There are more than 300 on the Great Lakes combined.

Lighthouses come in all kinds of colors and styles, and many are considered works of art. Each lighthouse has a unique appearance, meant to identify it by day. Sometimes, the lighthouse could be recognized by its color scheme. Other times, a unique architectural design was used to set the lighthouse apart.

While the most common structure is the cylindrical tower, lighthouse architects were known to get a bit dating in their designs. Perhaps the most unusual is the Twin Lights lighthouse in New Jersey, which looks like a medieval castle--complete with parapets and turrets.

The classic lighthouse, however, is still the enduring symbol of safety. Its light could be seen for more than 20 nautical miles out to sea, cutting through the night sky. East Coast lighthouses, for example, were often the first thing travelers would see after crossing the Atlantic from Europe.

Each lighthouse had its own distinct light signature. Most would flash at set intervals, which would identify the lighthouse by night. Some lighthouses had fixed lights, like Sandy Hook--it just came on and never flashed. Other lighthouses had a green light for safety or a red light for danger.

For sailors and travelers scanning the horizon, the beacon of a lighthouse was more than just a signpost to safety. It represented homecoming. When the beacon could be seen, the long journey was over. As Tom Laverty says, there is a universal sense of "psychological comfort" emitted by a lighthouse.

As America's interest in lighthouses has grown, so has the movement to preserve their legacy. For example, the Rose Island Lighthouse (401-847-4242, www. roseislandlighthouse.org) off Newport, Rhode Island, is a "living museum" where you can actually be the lightkeepers for a week (for $1,000 per couple).

A few lighthouses, like Rose Island in Newport, are open to overnight guests. The Saugerties Lighthouse on the Hudson River near Kingston, New York, (845-247-0656, www.saugertieslighthouse.com) operates as a bed and-breakfast. Two lighthouses-turned-B&Bs are on Lake Superior in Michigan--Sand Hills (906-337-1744, www.sandhillslighthouseinn.com) and Big Bay Point (906-345-9957, www. bigbaylighthouse.com).

The new National Lighthouse Museum in Staten Island, New York (718-556-1681, www.lighthousemuseum.org) lists on its web site almost 20 lighthouses with overnight accommodations. The museum consists of several historic buildings and a park facing New York Harbor.