With the smash of a champagne bottle and loud cheers all around, the Gay Head Light came to rest Saturday directly above the spot where experts believe it will be safe from erosion for 150 years or more. The three-day move, which started well ahead of schedule, is the most significant milestone in the efforts to preserve and restore the historic lighthouse.
Onlookers cheer for moment of history. — Mark Lovewell
The lighthouse came to rest on its new foundation at 11:10 a.m.
Shrouded in fog, earlier in the morning the 400-ton brick and mortar lighthouse stood less than 20 feet from its destination above a large concrete pad southeast of eroding clay cliffs. As workers from Expert House Movers and International Chimney Corp. made final adjustments, a growing crowd of visitors gathered on a dirt path that ended with metal barriers near the pad.
Jeffrey Madison, who grew up in Aquinnah and now lives on the Cape, couldn’t give up the opportunity to come home to witness the move. He remembered the sweep of the beacon shining into his house at night long ago, when the signal was three white flashes and one red. A new beacon, installed in the late 1980s, creates alternating red and white flashes.