Notes:
(1) Bristol Ferry Light was built to mark the narrow Strait between Narragansett Bay and Mount Hope Bay, and the two dangerous shoals leading to 1,800-foot wide navigable passage from Narragansett Bay.  A shoal from Hog Island extended 3,000 feet into the waterway and Musselbed Shoal extended out from the opposite shore.  From 1846 to 1855, a private Lightship marked the strait.  Both shoals were later marked by Hog Island Shoal and Musselbed Shoal Lighthouses.

      In 1855, a brick Keeper’s house with an attached 28-feet high brick tower and wooden lantern room was constructed.  The Lighthouse was First Lit on October 4, 1855 exhibiting a Fixed White light illuminated by a Sixth-order Fresnel lens and visible for 11-miles.


      Bristol Maritime History: Although the coastal town was settled as a farming community in 1680 to expand the Plymouth Colony, the settlers rapidly became involved in the shipbuilding and mercantile trades by 1700.

      Bristol Sea Captains engaged in coastal trading, whaling, privateering, and the notorious rum slave Triangular Trade* knew how to sail the Narragansett Bay to Bristol.  By the mid-1800s, Lighthouses became necessary for merchant and passenger ships navigating the narrow waterways near Bristol to Mount Hope Bay and Providence.

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      In 1916, the tower was raised 6-feet to its present height for assembling a cast-iron Lantern Room removed from the old Roundout Lighthouse on the Hudson River.


*From 1700 to 1820, slave trading was prosperous with the largest rum distillery in Bristol owned by the D’Wolf family who owned 48 ships and financed their slave trade.

(2) In 1927, The Lighthouse was replaced by a Skeleton Tower with a Acetylene Light.  In 1930, the Skeleton Tower was removed and replaced by the Pier Lighting of Mount Hope Bridge.

(3) Refitted with a Fifth-order Fresnel lens and electric lamp in August of 1902

(4) The Lantern Room was removed in 1928. A Lantern Room Replica was built in 1996 with a automatic light that is lit for 2 hours every evening.

(5) Directions from Providence:
      Take I 195 East to the Barrington/RI 114 South Exit. Merge onto RI 114 South and travel to to Bristol.  In Bristol, RI 114 is also named Hope Street.  Turn east onto Ferry Road and stay straight onto Old Ferry Road (0.3 mi) to a large turnaround (No Parking in the turnaround). The Lighthouse can be viewed from a nearby rocky beach.


A distant view of the Lighthouse can be seen from end of Bristol Ferry Road near Pocasset Country Club, Portsmouth, RI.