Telegraph Twin Lights’ elevation made it an ideal spot to conduct other communication activities not associated with the lighthouse. In 1829, the Merchant’s Exchange, a commodity exchange for buying and selling goods, erected a semaphore tower here. The tower was used to relay messages between ships passing Sandy Hook and the Exchange’s building in Manhattan, New York. The New York-Sandy Hook Telegraph Company, using magnetic telegraph equipment replaced the semaphore in 1854. Other telegraph companies including the Western Union, and the Postal Telegraph, would later compete from the Twin Lights location.
In 1899, Guglielmo Marconi placed an antenna and receiving station at the lighthouse to demonstrate his Wireless Telegraph. The New York Herald newspaper had hired him to report on the America’s Cup yacht races, which were being held off the tip of Sandy Hook. This demonstration worked so well that Marconi expanded his operations, making Twin Lights the nation’s first wireless telegraph station capable of sending and receiving messages on a regular commercial basis.
