Cape May Lighthouse

The 1859 Cape May Lighthouse features 199 steps up an original cast iron spiral stairway offering views of the Delaware Bay and Atlantic Ocean. The lighthouse has guided mariners past this treacherous point for over 160 years.

The Cape May Lighthouse, first lit on Halloween night in 1859, stands 157 feet above the southern tip of New Jersey where the Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. It is the third lighthouse built at this treacherous point -- the first two, erected in 1823 and 1847, were swallowed by coastal erosion and now lie beneath the waves. The waters surrounding Cape May Point earned the grim nickname "Graveyard of the Atlantic" for the countless ships claimed by its shifting sandbars and violent storms over more than three centuries of maritime travel.

The lighthouse's most enduring apparition is a spectral woman in white who appears on the first landing of the cast-iron spiral staircase. According to accounts documented by psychic medium Craig McManus, author of "The Ghosts of Cape May" book series, she wears a flowing white gown and carries a lantern in one hand while cradling a child in the other. Her identity has never been determined, though she appears trapped on that landing, eternally searching for someone who never arrives. Some local accounts connect her to the story of an Irish woman who was ostracized from Cape May society after bearing a child out of wedlock. According to this version of the legend, she would stand on the lighthouse's third floor gazing out to sea, waiting for the child's father to return by ship. The tragedy deepened when her child was reportedly struck and killed by a trolley while running toward the shore in excitement at the possible arrival of the father's vessel.

Visitors who climb the 199 steps to the top have reported encountering other ghostly presences as well. Ethereal figures have been seen ascending the spiral stairs, believed by some to be the spirits of former lighthouse keepers still making their rounds. The lighthouse generally employed one head keeper and two assistants, and the position was not without its dangers. In 1891, lightning struck the tower and traveled through the electric call bell system into the keeper's dwelling, and in 1901, another lightning strike stunned and burned the keeper's daughter. In 1905, Assistant Keeper John Pusey nearly drowned when his boat capsized in the shallow Lighthouse Pond directly behind the tower, sinking into the mucky bottom up to his neck before the nearby life-saving crew pulled him free.

A more recent and somber addition to the lighthouse's haunted reputation involves a man who, according to local accounts, squeezed through the railings at the observation platform at the top and plunged to his death in 1995. Visitors and tour guides report an unsettling presence near the base of the tower on the side where he landed. The Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, which has managed the lighthouse since 1986, operates the "Ghost of the Lighthouse" trolley tour on Saturday evenings, departing from Ocean and Washington Streets. Since the lighthouse was restored and opened for public climbing, more than 2.5 million visitors have ascended its stairs -- and some believe a few of those visitors have encountered spirits that never left.