Grays Harbor Light

The view is looking straight up the inside of the lighthouse from the floor. But if you let your eye
traverse the stairs you'll soon see an optical illusion that makes the stairs appear as if you're
looking down on them.

The 107-foot Grays Harbor Lighthouse, dedicated in 1898, is the tallest lighthouse in Washington
and the third tallest on the West Coast. It marks the entrance to Grays Harbor, which is one of
Washington's few outer-coast harbors. The base of the lighthouse rests on a 12-foot-thick foundation
of sandstone. The lighthouse walls, which are four feet thick at the base, are made of brick with a
coating of cement on the exterior. 135 metal stairs bolted to the wall lead to the lantern room. Originally
windows lit the interior of the tower, but to cut down on maintenance they were cemented over when
electricity was added to the station.

Construction of the Grays Harbor Light began in 1897 and was first lit in 1898. Thirteenth Lighthouse
District officials selected a site facing the Pacific Ocean, about 400 feet from water’s edge.
Massive amounts of accretion, due in large part to the jetty system at the entrance to Grays Harbor,
have since built up, and the lighthouse currently stands approximately 3000 feet from high tide.

Its initial signature was a five-second white flash, darkness, then a five-second red flash. After electricity
reached the lighthouse, the signature became white flashes followed by 15 seconds of darkness, then red
flashes followed by 15 seconds of darkness. In August 1992, the original third order Fresnel lens was turned
off. A smaller light, manufactured in New Zealand was mounted to the balcony. The new light operates on a
35 watt bulb and can been seen 19 miles with the white sector, 17 on the red sector. The lantern room still
holds the original Fresnel lens.