Titanic Memorial Lighthouse, South Street Seaport, May 2008

The Titanic Memorial Lighthouse stands 60 ft. tall at the entrance of the South Street Seaport on Fulton and Pearl Streets in Manhattan. Everyday thousands of people pass the light that stands as a tribute to the people who died on the SS Titanic on April 15, 1912.

The Memorial Light was originally atop the old Seaman's Church Institute located at the corner of South St and Coenties Slip and had a time ball attached to its pole. This time mechanism would drop at noon, alerting all the ships in the harbor of the time and people on the streets would set their watches to the drop of the ball. It was synchronized via a telegraphic signal from the National Observatory in Washington DC.

The Lighthouse served proudly from 1915 to 1967. In 1968, it was removed from the old Seaman's Institute and donated to the Seaport. The Titanic Memorial Lighthouse has been a proud fixture at the Seaport since 1976 and the museum is currently raising funds to restore the light to its former beauty

Lightship Ambrose, at South Street Seaport

Lightship Ambrose was the name of the lightship serving as the sentinel beacon marking Ambrose Channel, the main shipping channel for New York Harbor. Originally stationed south of the channel off of Sandy Hook, NJ in 1823, it was relocated closer to the center of the Ambrose Channel in 1906[1], until the station was replaced by Ambrose Light, a Texas Tower, in 1967. Between 1823 and 1967, several ships were commissioned Lightship Ambrose and served at the station.

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Lightship Ambrose, at South Street Seaport

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Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, interior

showing the Ambrose lighthouse ship

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