Kim Ruth

It was only by chance that the former Finns Point Range, near the town of Pennsville, was built in New Jersey, because the original plans of the Lighthouse Service called for the range to be located in Delaware. The owner of the proposed Delaware site thought his marshland to be worth a fortune, and the Lighthouse Service declined to pay his exorbitant price. Not wishing to go through the long process of condemning his land, they found, upon further consideration, that the lighthouses could be built at the other end of the range in New Jersey near a place called Finns Point.

At 260 feet above sea level, the Highlands of Navesink is one of the highest points of land on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Overlooking the narrow peninsula of Sandy Hook and being only twenty-six miles from New York City, it was inevitable that the Highlands would become important to the commerce, navigation and defense of that city.