Fodor's Expert Review National Lighthouse Museum

Just a short five-minute stroll from the ferry terminal, this museum sheds "light" on lighthouse history throughout America. It's housed not in a lighthouse, but in the foundry that was once part of an 18-building complex for the U.S. Lighthouse Service's General Depot, the center of all lighthouse operations across the country from 1864 to 1939. Self-guided tours through the small museum reveal miniature scale models of many recognizable American lighthouses, an exhibit on the technology of Fresnel lenses, plus displays about famous lighthouse keepers, who collectively played an important role in American maritime history.