Saybrook Breakwater Lighthouse is located at the mouth of the mighty Connecticut River near the picturesque town of Old Saybrook.Saybrook Breakwater Lighthouse was one of the first of a number of cylindrical cast-iron lighthouses constructed between the 1880s and the 1920s. G. W. & F. Smith Iron Co., the name of the Boston-based manufacturer of the tower, is inscribed over the entrance door. The forty-nine-foot tower is supported by a cast-iron concrete-filled caisson sunk in seventeen feet of water. The caisson foundation has a diameter of thirty feet, a height of thirty-two feet, and its upper portion flares out to house a basement for the tower. As was customary with this type of structure, the caisson was assembled on land nearby and taken by barge to the site, where it was lowered into the water.
Both the caisson foundation and tower were painted brown until 1892, when the tower was painted white. To warn mariners away from the breakwater during periods of low visibility, the station was equipped with a fog bell struck every twenty seconds. This served until circa 1936 when a diaphragm foghorn was installed.
