Can you see the light that was used to assist vessels navigating the Savannah River?
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Erected by the United States Lighthouse Board in 1858, the Old Harbor Light was built to guide traffic along the Savannah River.

It has a 25-foot cast-iron ornamental shaft, resembling a street light, which is painted a dark green.  It was the rear light to the Fig Island Front Range Light, which helped ships navigate past the "wrecks" - six vessels that were intentionally sunk as a defense measure during the American Revolution.

The light currently sits in Emmet Park, at the East end of Bay Street, near East Broad, and displays an ornamental gas light.

In 1999, restoration of the light took place, thanks to donations by the Savannah Morning News and CSX, as part of a city-wide effort to clean up the city's monuments.  The light was relit on January 11, 2001.

The beacon light was erected by the federal government in 1858 as an aid to navigation of the Savannah River.  Standing 77 feet above river level and illuminated by gas, it served for several years as a guide to vessels passing over the hulls of ships that the British scuttled in 1779 to close the harbor to the French naval forces.  During the Siege of Savannah that year by the French and Americans the warship TRUTTE, commanded by Count de Chastenet de Puysequr, shelled this area of Savannah from her anchorage in Back River opposite this point.

The development of this portion of Emmet Park as a garden area was a project of the Trustees Garden Club during the centennial year of the erection of the "Old Harbor Light."

The Waving Girl as seen from Emmet Park

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