Point Loma and the Old Lighthouse
It's now been a week since we spent a day at Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego. I'm still catching up because 1) I spent several days immediately following this at a sales conference generally working 12-16 hours a day and 2) there's so much to share.
After we finished up walking the sea cliffs and tidepools on the ocean side of the park we drove back up to the top of the ridge to check out the visitors center and tour the Old Point Loma Lighthouse.
Point Loma is the name for the tip of the ridge that forms a peninsula separating San Diego and San Diego Bay from the Pacific Ocean. Here's a view across the bay from atop the point:
Toward the left of the picture are some Navy operations at the bottom of the ridge. Downtown San Diego is on the far right. It's hard to make out a lot of what's in the distance because of the haze on the day we visited.
Here's a relief map in the visitors center that helps illustrate what you see in the pictures:
Point Loma is the tip of that ridge on the lower left. Downtown San Diego is on the far fight. Across the middle is North Island, a big part of which is a Navy airfield. No, that's not San Diego Airport (SAN); the commercial airport is smaller and is part of the mainland on the north edge of the bay.
Here's what that view toward downtown looks like with a telephoto lens:
Looking at the monument in the foreground, a lot of schoolkids around us exclaimed, "It's the Statue of Liberty!" I didn't have the heart to tell them it's about as much the opposite of liberty as possible. It's a statue of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the Spanish explorer who discovered this area in 1542 and wrested it from the native residents. It's basically the Statue of Robbery, Enslavement, and Murder.
But hey, how about that lighthouse? Lighthouses never told anybody they must convert or be killed in the name of an all-loving and merciful god, right? Right.
The Old Point Loma Lighthouse operated from 1855 to 1891. Two things: "It's short!" some people note. Most lighthouses are tall. This one doesn't need to be because it's atop a mountain. That's also why it was decommissioned in 1891. A newer lighthouse was built lower down the mountain, where fog was less likely to block its light from the view of mariners out at sea.
From the perspective of the people who operated this lighthouse for 36 years it was a lonely job. As beautiful as the area is (when the weather's nice) it was a very isolated location. Today the drive from downtown San Diego takes maybe 30 minutes, all on city streets. 150 years ago it was an all-day trip, much of it on rutted wagon roads.
After we finished up walking the sea cliffs and tidepools on the ocean side of the park we drove back up to the top of the ridge to check out the visitors center and tour the Old Point Loma Lighthouse.
Point Loma is the name for the tip of the ridge that forms a peninsula separating San Diego and San Diego Bay from the Pacific Ocean. Here's a view across the bay from atop the point:
Toward the left of the picture are some Navy operations at the bottom of the ridge. Downtown San Diego is on the far right. It's hard to make out a lot of what's in the distance because of the haze on the day we visited.
Here's a relief map in the visitors center that helps illustrate what you see in the pictures:
Point Loma is the tip of that ridge on the lower left. Downtown San Diego is on the far fight. Across the middle is North Island, a big part of which is a Navy airfield. No, that's not San Diego Airport (SAN); the commercial airport is smaller and is part of the mainland on the north edge of the bay.
Here's what that view toward downtown looks like with a telephoto lens:
Looking at the monument in the foreground, a lot of schoolkids around us exclaimed, "It's the Statue of Liberty!" I didn't have the heart to tell them it's about as much the opposite of liberty as possible. It's a statue of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the Spanish explorer who discovered this area in 1542 and wrested it from the native residents. It's basically the Statue of Robbery, Enslavement, and Murder.
But hey, how about that lighthouse? Lighthouses never told anybody they must convert or be killed in the name of an all-loving and merciful god, right? Right.
The Old Point Loma Lighthouse operated from 1855 to 1891. Two things: "It's short!" some people note. Most lighthouses are tall. This one doesn't need to be because it's atop a mountain. That's also why it was decommissioned in 1891. A newer lighthouse was built lower down the mountain, where fog was less likely to block its light from the view of mariners out at sea.
From the perspective of the people who operated this lighthouse for 36 years it was a lonely job. As beautiful as the area is (when the weather's nice) it was a very isolated location. Today the drive from downtown San Diego takes maybe 30 minutes, all on city streets. 150 years ago it was an all-day trip, much of it on rutted wagon roads.