The Presque Isle Lighthouse was completed in 1873 and stands on a sand-spit peninsula that juts out into Lake Erie from Erie, Pennsylvania. The lighthouse is a 40-foot tower built of bricks, thick enough to protect the tower from the weather that comes in off of the Great Lakes. The original light was a fourth-order Fresnel lens that was visible for 13 miles. In the 1920s, the station received an alternating red and white electric light, which led the locals to refer to the lighthouse as the "flashlight." In 1962, a 250-watt white light replaced the alternating light. The station is now fully automated and the light is maintained by the Coast Guard.