Mile Rock Overlook
A lighthouse built after a steamer went down in the fog
The story
Look out to sea. On a rock not far from shore stands a short white tower with a helipad on top. This is Mile Rocks Light. On February 22, 1901, the steamer City of Rio de Janeiro was entering the Golden Gate in thick fog. She struck an underwater ledge and sank in about eight minutes. More than a hundred people died. After that, Congress paid for a lighthouse. Building on a bare rock amid waves and currents was so hard that the first crew refused the job. The contractor, James McMahon, hired experienced sailors, and in 1906 the light went into service. The tower was eighty-five feet tall, in three tiers, with a lantern on top. The keepers lived on the rock without their families, usually two weeks on the light and one week ashore. The last of them left in the summer of 1965. Then the Coast Guard cut off the two upper tiers and built a helipad, and the light began to run on its own. The wreck of the steamer lies about two hundred eighty-seven feet down. In 2014 it was found again with sonar. And below the cliffs, at low tide, you can see the remains of other wrecked ships.
Visiting
Up to this platform the path is level and wheelchair accessible. Farther on there are long flights of stairs.
On the trail
- Lands End — 2.9 miles round trip, 1.5 h
Sources
- National Park Service — Lands End Trailhead: the 2.9-mile out-and-back Coastal Trail, a level path to Mile Rock Overlook, free parking
- KQED — “Mile Rocks: A Lighthouse Unlike Any Other”
- Wikipedia (EN) — Mile Rocks Light: 1906, an 85-foot tower, automated in 1966
- Wikipedia (EN) — SS City of Rio de Janeiro: wrecked on February 22, 1901, the wreck found again in 2014
- Wikipedia (EN) — Lands End (San Francisco): the visitor center opened on April 28, 2012; shipwrecks
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