Point Bonita Lighthouse for kids
The Lighthouse and the Fog Cannon. A true story near Sausalito, CA, told for kids 3-12.
Read along
Way out at the tippy-tip of these cliffs is the Point Bonita Lighthouse. To get there, you walk through a tunnel dug into the rock by hand, and then across a tiny wobbly bridge. It looks like a baby Golden Gate Bridge! But here's the funny part.
Long ago, when the fog got super thick, ships couldn't even see the light. So the lighthouse got a fog cannon! A soldier had to fire the cannon every half hour, all night long, to warn the ships. Boom!
One soldier fired it for three whole days and nights, with hardly any sleep, and he got sooo tired. Later they got a big clanging bell, and after that, a giant foghorn. Much easier!
Quiz the back seat
What did they use to warn ships in thick fog, before the foghorn?
Show the answer
A cannon. A cannon! Boom, every half hour, all night long.
3 fun facts
- First lit in 1855.
- Reached by a hand-dug tunnel and a small suspension bridge.
- Had the west coast's first fog signal: a cannon.
For grown-ups
Written by the Tumbly team, then checked claim by claim against the sources below before it was published; stories that don't pass stay off the app and this site. Narration is pre-recorded, and nothing you do on this page is tied to your kids.
Sources
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Town and county names: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0).