All eyes turned to the western tip of Martha’s Vineyard last spring as the Gay Head Light was moved carefully away from an eroding cliff.
Relocating the 160-year-old lighthouse, a treasured Island icon, was a labor of love for the Aquinnah community. The effort gained nationwide attention.
Next week the PBS science series Nova will air Operation Lighthouse Rescue, a film documenting the complicated engineering and science behind the effort to relocate the brick lighthouse.
The documentary was filmed by London-based Windfall Films.
A 30-second clip of the film shows scenic aerial clips of the lighthouse “that teeters on the collapsing cliff,” accompanied by dramatic footage of the move and bad weather. The film features interviews with Islanders, including lighthouse committee chairman Len Butler, and the relocation team.
“Can they save it before time runs out?” the clip ends.
Most Islanders know the answer to that cliff-hanger.
The lighthouse has been a fixture on the Gay Head Cliffs since the 19th century, but erosion steadily brought it closer and closer to the edge. Late last May, after more than two years of planning, the 400-ton, 51-foot-tall lighthouse was moved 129 feet further inland.
The move required a massive excavation, and the Island’s oldest lighthouse was carefully rolled along a 100-ton steel frame. All in all the actual relocation took about three days, but work continues to restore and landscape the lighthouse site.
Operation Lighthouse Rescue airs on Wednesday, May 4 at 9 p.m. on PBS.
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