91视频

By Michael Hill
The Associated Press

HUDSON, N.Y. 鈥� The race is on to keep a 150-year-old lighthouse from crumbling into the Hudson River.

Wooden pilings beneath are deteriorating, and the structure, built in the middle of the river when steamboats still plied the water, is beginning to shift. Cracks are apparent on the brick building and its granite foundation.

While many lighthouses around the nation are at risk of loss, Hudson-Athens is facing peril so dire that the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed the structure 100 miles north of New York City on its 2024 list of 11 most endangered historic places. Advocates say that if action isn鈥檛 taken soon, yet another historic lighthouse could be lost in the coming years.

鈥淎ll four corners will begin to come down, and then you鈥檒l have a pile of rock in the middle,鈥� said Van Calhoun of the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Preservation Society during a recent visit. 鈥淎nd ultimately it will topple into the river.鈥�

The group is trying to quickly raise money to place a submerged steel curtain around the lighthouse; the ambitious preservation project could cost as much as $10 million. The goal is to save a prominent symbol of the river鈥檚 long history as a busy waterway. While the Hudson River was once home to more than a dozen lighthouses, only seven still stand.

Elsewhere, there鈥檚 a similar story of lost history.

Across the United States, there were around 1,500 lighthouses at the beginning of the 20th century. Only about 800 of them remain, U.S. Lighthouse Society Executive Director Jeff Gales said. Many of the structures deteriorated after they were automated 鈥� a process that became more common by the 1940s, he added.

鈥淟ighthouses were built to have human beings taking care of them,鈥� Gales said. 鈥淎nd when you seal them up and take the human factor out, that鈥檚 when they really start falling into disrepair.鈥�

Hudson-Athens Lighthouse began operating in 1874 offshore from the city of Hudson and was eventually co-named for the village of Athens on the other side of the river. It was built to help keep boats from running aground on nearby mud flats, which were submerged at high tide.

鈥淭here were shipwrecks because they couldn鈥檛 see the sandbar,鈥� Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Preservation Society President Kristin Gamble said. 鈥淎nd so that鈥檚 why this lighthouse was put in the middle of the river, unlike most that are on the shoreline.鈥�

The lighthouse is still in use, though now with an automated LED beacon. The preservation society owns the building and maintains it as a museum.

The last full-time keeper, Emil Brunner, retired in 1949 when the lighthouse became automated. He lived there with his family for much of his tenure. One of his daughters聽recalled rowing to school聽and, in the winter, walking across the ice on a safe path marked by her father鈥檚 tobacco juice stains on the frozen surface. Brunner also is portrayed on a 1946聽Saturday Evening Post cover painting. He鈥檚 shown rowing聽with a child, Christmas presents and a tree in tow, as his wife and other children await their arrival on the lighthouse landing.

Visitors who are ferried to the lighthouse today can explore the keeper鈥檚 quarters, which are modest but feature river views from every window. And they can climb up the tight spiral staircase to the tower to take in a unique panorama view of the river and the Catskill Mountains to the west.

The lighthouse is receiving roof work this summer, but such repairs will ultimately mean little unless workers address damage to some of the 200 mud-packed wood pilings that hold the lighthouse above water. The support structure has weathered 150 years of currents and ice. But large commercial ships of the modern era 鈥� with their big propellers 鈥� introduce new problems.

鈥淭hey create a turbulence that鈥檚 like being inside a washing machine,鈥� Calhoun said. 鈥淎nd that turbulence actually comes underneath and pulls 鈥� churns up 鈥� the soil underneath us and sucks it away. In fact, there are boulders as big as your car that are 100 feet out in that river that used to be right next to us.”

The underwater agitation washes away mud around the pilings, leaving them exposed to water. And that accelerates decay of the wood. Engineers estimate the structure could begin to tilt in three to five years, which Gamble said would be 鈥渢he beginning of the end.鈥�

The proposed ring of corrugated steel would shield the structure from that turbulence. The 100-foot-diameter circle, which would project above the water line, would be filled in and covered by a deck, enlarging the area around the lighthouse.

The preservation group is optimistic about getting federal money to help pay for the project. Both of New York鈥檚 U.S. senators, Democrats Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, support the effort, as does local U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro, a Republican.

Though the project is pricey, Gamble said, it would protect the 19th-century beacon for generations to come.

鈥淲e need, basically, the 100-year fix,鈥� she said.