The Erie Harbor North Pier Light, also known as the Presque Isle North Pier Light, is one of the three lighthouses near Erie

Erie, Pennsylvania

Erie is a city located in northwestern Pennsylvania in the United States. Named for the lake and the Native American tribe that resided along its southern shore, Erie is the state's fourth-largest city , with a population of 102,000...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The light, situated at the far eastern end of Presque Isle State Park

Presque Isle State Park

Presque Isle State Park is a Pennsylvania state park on an arching sandy peninsula that juts into Lake Erie, west of the city of Erie, in Millcreek Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The peninsula sweeps northeastward, surrounding Presque Isle Bay along the park's...

, helps mariners as they traverse the narrow inlet between Lake Erie

Lake Erie

Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...

 and Presque Isle Bay

Presque Isle Bay

Presque Isle Bay is a natural bay located off the coast of Erie, Pennsylvania, United States. Its embayment is about in length, about across at its widest point, and an average depth of about . The bay is bounded on the north and west by a recurved peninsula that makes up Presque Isle State Park...

.

Originally constructed as a wooden tower in 1830, that light was swept away by a schooner

Schooner

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....

 in 1857. The current structure was forged

Forged

Forged is a book written by biblical scholar, Bart D. Ehrman which attempts to analyze the historical accuracy of the Christian Bible. The book posits that 11 or more books out of the 27 books of the Christian New Testament canon were written as certain types of forgeries related to the politics...

 in France and assembled on site in Erie. It was moved in 1882 and again in 1940. The United States Coast Guard

United States Coast Guard

The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...

, which operates the beacon, changed its fixed red beam to an automated red flashing light in 1995, at which time the 4th order Fresnel lens

Fresnel lens

A Fresnel lens is a type of lens originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses.The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design...

 was sent to the Erie Maritime Museum

Erie Maritime Museum

Erie Maritime Museum is a maritime museum located on Presque Isle Bay in downtown Erie, Pennsylvania. It was the first new PHMC museum in twenty years when it opened its doors on May 21, 1998...

.