West Point Light ~ Discovery Park

2/15/2014 ~ West Point Light ~ Discovery Park ~ Magnolia Neighborhood, Seattle, WA

Today was a full day of rain which include a walk in the park to West Point Light. A day to use the weather sealed Pentax K5IIs camera with the DA * weather-resistant lens. It has been a dry winter in Seattle and the weather today was more representative of the typical winter day.

The West Point Light, also known as the Discovery Park Lighthouse, is a 23-foot-high lighthouse on Seattle, Washington's West Point which juts into Puget Sound and marks the northern extent of Elliott Bay. Opening on November 15, 1881, and featuring a fourth-order Fresnel lens, it was the first manned light station on Puget Sound and cost $25,000 to build ($600 thousand in today dollars). It was illuminated with a kerosene lamp for its first 44 years, until it was attached to Seattle's electric grid in 1926.

The lighthouse is no longer manned and the Coast Guard has replaced the Fresnel lens with with a modern Vega Rotating Beacon (VRB-25). Today the light retains its original characteristic of alternating red and white flash every five seconds.