Roosevelt Island Lighthouse

The Roosevelt Island Lighthouse stands fifty feet tall at the northern tip of the island, a rugged Gothic tower constructed from local gray gneiss. When it began operating in eighteen seventy-two, it served as a private navigation aid for ships struggling through the notoriously dangerous currents of the East River known as Hell Gate. The stone for the tower was quarried right here on the island, primarily by inmates from the local penitentiary who provided the labor for many of the island's nineteenth-century institutional buildings.