Long Beach Light also known as the Long Beach Harbor Light, is a lighthouse

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

 on Long Beach

Long Beach, California

Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...

 Harbor in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

History

Long Beach Harbor Light looks different from a traditional lighthouse. Labeled the "robot light" when established in 1949, it is completely automated and was the forerunner of the new version of 20th-century lighthouses on America's West Coast. The 42 feet (12.8 m) high white, rectangular tower with a columnar base, features a 36 inches (914.4 mm) airway-type beacon and is controlled by the ANRAC system from the Los Angeles Harbor Light

Los Angeles Harbor Light

Los Angeles Harbor Light, ', also known as Angels Gate Light, is a lighthouse in California,United States, at San Pedro Breakwater in Los Angeles Harbor, California. The lighthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places...

. The three-story facility, of monolithic design, is built of concrete supported on six cement columns cast into six pockets of a crib

Crib

A crib is an infant bed in American English .Crib may also refer to:*A box crib, a wooden frame used to stabilise a heavy object during a rescue, jacking, construction or moving operation....

. In its commanding position in San Pedro

San Pedro, Los Angeles, California

San Pedro is a port district of the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. It was annexed in 1909 and is a major seaport of the area...

's middle breakwater

Breakwater (structure)

Breakwaters are structures constructed on coasts as part of coastal defence or to protect an anchorage from the effects of weather and longshore drift.-Purposes of breakwaters:...

, the lighthouse was considered an uncanny mechanical wonder when first established. Later, another navigation light in the Long Beach area was erected atop the pilot station at the Port of Long Beach in 1968. Marking the harbor entrance channel, the light is accompanied by one of 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...

's radar scanners.