Cabrillo Nation Monument, San Diego
The panoramic photo above was taken at the Cabrillo National Monument at Point Loma in San Diego, one of the National Parks run by the national park service. Point Loma is a peninsula that shelters San Diego Bay. The park is on a bluff that is over 400 feet high.
The national park is named for Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo who was one of the Spanish conquistadors. Under Hernan Cortes, he served as a captain of a squad of crossbowmen and helped conquer the Aztecs in Mexico. Cabrillo was born about 1500 on the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal) shortly after Columbus discovered America, he was a military man who helped conquer what is now Mexico and Guatemala.
Among other occupations, he was also a shipbuilder and farmer. In 1542 he built three ships to explore the coast of California. His whole story is told in the museum at the park. When I was there, there were elementary school children on a field trip. You can see all the tourists around Cabrillo’s statue in the picture below.
In 1850, a lighthouse was built at Point Loma as an aid to navigation. The old lighthouse operated until about 1891. The lamp generated light by burning oil. The light was directed through a huge fresnel lens that weighed about 2000 pounds.
Below is a closeup of the restored lighthouse and the oil building. The lighthouse keeper and his family lived in this isolated placed all year long. There were very few visitors most of the year. San Diego was about 10 miles away by horse-drawn wagon.
All Photos courtesy of Amazing Travel Photos
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo on Wikipedia
Documentary filmmaler Ken Burns made a phenomenal film about the national parks that aired on PBS. You can learn about it here: The National Parks: America’s Best Idea
How to Get There: From downtown San Diego take the blue line trolley to Old Town Transit Center. The get on the 28 bus to the 84 bus. Make sure you get on the 84 bus going to Cabrillo Monument and not the submarine base, because both directions use the same bus stop. Unfortunately, the 84 bus no longer runs on weekends. An all-day pass on the San Diego MTS is five dollars which entitles you to use all the trolleys and buses.
National Park Service website for Cabrillo National Monument California