Almost two weeks ahead of schedule, the Gay Head Lighthouse began its ultra-slow-motion journey to a new location 134 feet from its former site -- and well back from the eroding cliff-side. Amid the din of heavy construction equipment – and a news helicopter and drone overhead – spectators watched as the first stages of the three-day move unfolded.
Sporting a red and yellow banner advertising one of the contractors, the 400-ton structure loomed over the hollowed-out site. To make sure it holds together, a protective stabilizing corset was wrapped around the 160-year-old lighthouse just under the beacon. Below, contractors scurried around an elaborate network of crisscross steel beams and train track-like rails, checking and re-checking the elaborate system that is slowly carrying Gay Head Light to its new home.
Len Butler is a building contractor and 45-year Aquinnah resident. He’s worked with the committee to save the lighthouse for three years.
“Once it was lifted and secured and blocked up, the main beams, which are the tracks, were inserted underneath,” Butler explained. “Between the main beams and the track are a series of rollers, which are like six or eight little rolling pins that are clamped onto the upper beam and ride along the lower track beam. And this 400-ton structure will be inched along by hydraulics, five feet at a time, until it gets over to the relocation site.”
That should take about three days, assuming everything keeps going as well as it has. Butler pointed to the newly-prepared foundation for the lighthouse.
“Once it is in place here, masonry block will be laid up to support that granite, and then the steel beams will be removed like Jenga sticks, one at a time, until the weight is completely transferred on the new lighthouse,” he said.
Before the move began, the Gay Head Light was just 46 feet from the eroding cliffs of Aquinnah. The effort to move it began about three years ago, but took on a new urgency after it became clear that the heavy equipment needed for the job would leave just a few feet to spare.
Sarah Thulin is Chairman of the Aquinnah Conservation Commission. She said she’s been amazed by the degree of support the project has received across the board.
“From Town Meeting on, the selectmen and all the various committees, and then the other towns on the Vineyard, and everybody pitching in,” Thulin said. “It’s just been heartwarming to see the efforts to save this monument.”
Thulin says move organizers have been fundraising for three years, and now are only $200,000 shy of an overall goal of about $3.5 million to pay for the move.
The land between the former location and the new site is sloping, so excavators had to dig out massive amounts of sediment and clay to lay down a level transport system. That material will be replaced once the move is complete.
Buddy Vanderhoop is a well-known Vineyard charter boat Captain. He stood along the fence, watching the activity.
“I’ve been a mariner for 50 years anyway, and I’ve been swordfishing offshore. And the first thing you saw when you were 16 or 17 miles out was the Gay Head Light,” Vanderhoop recalled.
Vanderhoop has ancestral connections to the lighthouse.
“My great Uncle Charlie was the first lighthouse keeper up here. He lived in the house here for probably 45 years.”
A few feet away, Vineyard summer resident Bob Woodward waited with his wife to see the move begin.
“This is historic…didn’t wanna miss it for anything. Just waiting for ‘em to get started. We wanna watch the actual move,” he said.
As it turns out, the move had already begun a few minutes before, but it was impossible to tell because of the snail’s pace of the lighthouse traversing the rails. But after about 45 minutes, the first five feet of the move was complete.
That’s how it’s expected to go for the next three days – five feet of progress, then two hours of prep-time before tackling the next 5-foot stretch.
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