Sandy Hook (732) 872-5970

The Sandy Hook Light is the oldest standing lighthouse and the oldest operating lighthouse in the United States. It is the only surviving tower of the 11 lighthouses built in the thirteen colonies during the colonial period from 1716 to 1771.

Click here for a slideshow history of lighthouses

Fort Hancock, named in 1895 for General Winfield Scott Hancock, protected New York harbor until 1974.

Spermaceti Cove Life-Saving Station, 1894 currently is the Sandy Hook Visitor Center. This building housed the men who risked their lives saving shipwrecked victims.

The Sandy Hook Proving Ground was the first U.S. Army Proving Ground. It was established in 1874 to test new weaponry. In 1919, it was moved to Aberdeen, Maryland.

www.nps.gov/gate/historyculture/places.htm