Long Beach Island’s Barnegat Lighthouse was built over a hundred years ago and just in the past year has once again been shining its light. It sits on the southern edge of the Barnegat Inlet and although the light is no longer necessary it is nice to see it shining again.
The lighthouse you can see today is actually the second lighthouse structure on this shore of the inlet. The first was poorly built and unfortunately situated. Despite being built a ways back from the shoreline a number of storms made it so the lighthouse was at the edge of the water. It eventually fell over and into the water.
The current lighthouse was designed and built under the supervision of George Meade in the 1850’s. Meade would later go on to become a Civil War general and serve an important role at the battle of Gettysburg. His generalship skills were as good as his engineering skills and Meade built a much sounder structure than the original Barnegat Lighthouse designers. The fine work he did is what you will find today if you visit Barnegat Light State Park.