This color educational film is about the Lighthouses in the USA. This was made in 1960. This film was an entry in the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 1961.

Opening titles: Coast Guard Lighthouses, produced by the US Coast Guard (:06-:26). A lighthouse is shown. Crashing tides. The US Coast Guard operates over 300 lighthouses. Portland Head, Montauk Point. Cape Henry Virginia Light, Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, St. Augustine, FL light (:27-1:44). Many lights in the Caribbean are coast guard operated like the one in Puerto Rico. Standard Rock. White Shoal light. Alaskan lighthouses (1:45-2:28). Down the Pacific coast, Destruction Island lighthouse, Oregon lighthouses. Point Reyes in Northern, CA. Mile Rock Light in San Francisco opened in 1906 (2:29-3:09). Anacapa Island in Ventura County, CA, another more modern near Los Angeles. Another near Point Loma in San Diego (3:10-3:51). Hawaiian light houses are shown. There are six. A map is shown dotted along the Eastern and Western coasts of where lighthouses are located (3:52-4:25). The very first lighthouse was the Lighthouse of Alexandria was built on the island of Pharos outside the harbors of Alexandria, Egypt c. 300 – 280 BCE, during the reigns of Ptolemy I and II. With a height of over 100 meters (330 ft), it was so impressive that it made it onto the established list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (4:26-4:40). Boston light was the first in the new colonies. When the British left Boston, March 17, 1776, a number of their ships remained in the harbor. On June 13, 1776, American soldiers landed on Long Island, Boston Harbor, and at Nantasket Hill and opened fire on this fleet who were soon at their mercy. Before sailing away, the British sent a boat ashore at Boston Light and left a time charge which blew up the lighthouse (4:41-5:04). In the early 1800s, the lighthouse keepers lived at the lighthouse, normal life is shown and explained. How modern lights came to be is explained (5:05-6:15). Portland Head Light is a historic lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. The light station sits on a head of land at the entrance of the primary shipping channel into Portland Harbor, which is within Casco Bay in the Gulf of Maine. Completed in 1791, it is the oldest lighthouse in Maine. Living quarters are on station. Life is shown, commercial electricity is used. 1000 watt lamps are used for mariners (6:16-7:42). New Bedford, MA light house is shown. Florida reef lighthouses. The Lansing Shoals Light Station is a lighthouse located in northeastern Lake Michigan, 6.3 miles southeast of Point Patterson, in Newton Township, Mackinac County, Michigan (7:43-9:03). Lights are shown used and changed. Radio beacons are worked on. The foghorn is still important (9:04-10:48). Oak Island, NC lighthouse is featured. Long Beach, CA (10:49-11:38). The Scotch Cap Light is a lighthouse located on Unimak Island in Alaska. It was the first station established on the outside coast of Alaska and on April 1, 1946, the station was destroyed by a massive tsunami created by the 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake. The entire five-man crew was killed. Sometimes nature will defeat our progress (11:39-11:59). The Cape Kumukahi Light is a lighthouse in Hawaii. It is best known for its survival of an eruption of Kilauea in 1960 (12:00-12:50). Coast Guard ligthhouses dot the eastern and western coasts. Today they are modern and efficient (12:51-13:42). Credits: an Official Coast Guard film, The End credit (13:43-13:52)

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com