Today
Boston Light was automated in 1998, but is still staffed by a resident civilian keeper assisted by volunteer watchstanders from the Coast Guard Auxiliary. However, these personnel are mostly used to act as interpretive tour guides for visitors.
Its light, flashing white every 10 seconds, shines through the only second-order Fresnel lens still in use in Massachusetts (of only four total), and is visible from a distance of 27 nautical miles (50 km). Although it is still an important navigation mark, its importance has been decreased over the last century by the use of Boston Harbor's North Channel for most large vessels entering the harbor.
Guided tours of the island and light are available, by prior arrangement.
Read more about this topic: Boston Light
Famous quotes containing the word today:
“The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.”
—Mother Teresa (b. 1910)
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone; You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 6:4-9.
“Indeed, the best books have a use, like sticks and stones, which is above or beside their design, not anticipated in the preface, not concluded in the appendix. Even Virgil’s poetry serves a very different use to me today from what it did to his contemporaries. It has often an acquired and accidental value merely, proving that man is still man in the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)