West Point Lighthouse

The West Point Lighthouse in Seattle, Washington, sits on West Point, the westernmost point in Seattle. West Point juts out into Puget Sound and marks the northern boundary of Elliott Bay.

The lighthouse is 23 feet high and opened on November 15, 1881. Built at a cost of $25,000, it was the first lighthouse on Puget Sound.

The lighthouse featured a fourth-order Fresnel lens that alternated flashes and white and red every five seconds.

The lens was originally lighted by a kerosene lamp. In 1926, the lighthouse was connected to Seattle's electrical grid.

Photo by Cliff West

The lighthouse originally featured a 1,600-pound fog bell that was originally used at Cape Disappointment. On February 7, 1887, the fog bell was replaced by a Daboll trumpet operated by a coal-fired caloric engine, and the bell was subsequently moved to Oregon's Warrior Rock lighthouse. The trumpet was replaced by an air horn in June 1944.

Photo by Cliff West

The West Point Lighthouse was automated in February 1985. It was the last lighthouse in Washington to be automated. The original Fresnel lens was lighted by a 1,000-watt quartz lamp that produced an 80,000 candlepower beam, with the alternating white and red flashes visible for 19 miles and 16 miles respectively.

Photo by Cliff West

The West Point Lighthouse sits adjacent to Seattle's Discovery Park, and is accessible by trail from the park.

The beaches that surround the lighthouse offer views of Puget Sound.

Discovery Park is the largest park in Seattle. It was created in the 1970s on surplus land from the United States Army's Fort Lawton.

In 1898, the city of Seattle gave the U.S. Army 703 acres of land for use as a fort. The 1,100-acre Fort Lawton opened on February 9, 1900.

Fort Lawton was named for Major General Henry Ware Lawton, who served in the Civil War, the Indian Wars, and the Spanish-American War before being killed in action during the Philippine-American War on December 19, 1899.

534 acres of land for Discovery Park was transferred back to the city of Seattle in 1972, and was dedicated as Discovery Park in 1973. Fort Lawton remained a Army Reserve base until it finally closed on February 25, 2012.

Photo by Cliff West

The West Point Lighthouse is now part of Discovery Park, having been transferred to the city of Seattle in 2004. The United States Coast Guard has replaced the original Fresnel lens with a VRB-25 Vega Rotating Beacon that replicates the original lighting pattern.