In 1921, New York moved a New Jersey lighthouse to the Hudson; a book saved it

Beneath the enormous steel span of New York’s George Washington Bridge stands a small red lighthouse with a history that began far from Manhattan. Built in 1880, the cast-iron tower once served as the North Hook Beacon at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, before being dismantled and given a new life on the Hudson River. In 1921, it was moved to Jeffrey’s Hook, where it returned to service as a working navigational light. A decade later, the newly completed bridge towered above it, making the little lighthouse seem almost incidental. Its working life eventually ended, but its story did not. A 1942 children’s book turned the real lighthouse into a beloved literary landmark, and when plans emerged to sell it in 1951, children and adults rallied to save it.