The race is on to keep a 150-year-old lighthouse from crumbling into the Hudson River.

Wooden pilings beneath Hudson-Athens Lighthouse are deteriorating, and the structure, built in the middle of the river when steamboats still plied the water, is beginning to shift. Cracks are apparent on the brick building and its granite foundation.

While there are other endangered lighthouses around the nation, the peril to this one 100 miles 161 (kilometers) north of New York City is so dire the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed Hudson-Athens on its 2024 list of the countryB次元官网网址檚 11 most endangered historic places. Advocates say that if action isnB次元官网网址檛 taken soon, yet another historic lighthouse could be lost in the coming years.

B次元官网网址淎ll four corners will begin to come down, and then youB次元官网网址檒l have a pile of rock in the middle. And ultimately it will topple into the river,B次元官网网址� Van Calhoun of the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Preservation Society said during a recent visit.

The society is trying to quickly raise money to place a submerged steel curtain around the lighthouse, an ambitious preservation project that could cost as much as $10 million. Their goal is to save a prominent symbol of the riverB次元官网网址檚 centuries-long history as a busy waterway. While the Hudson River was once home to more than a dozen lighthouses, only seven still stand.

Elsewhere, thereB次元官网网址檚 a similar story of lost history.

Across the United States, there were around 1,500 lighthouses at the beginning of the 20th century. Only about 800 of them remain, said U.S. Lighthouse Society executive director Jeff Gales. He said many of the structures deteriorated after they were automated, a process that became more common by the 1940s.

B次元官网网址淟ighthouses were built to have human beings taking care of them,B次元官网网址� Gales said. B次元官网网址淎nd when you seal them up and take the human factor out, thatB次元官网网址檚 when they really start falling into disrepair.B次元官网网址�

The Hudson-Athens Lighthouse began operating in 1874 offshore from the city of Hudson and was eventually co-named for the village of Athens on the other side of the river. It was built to help keep boats from running aground on nearby mud flats, which were submerged at high tide.

B次元官网网址淭here were shipwrecks because they couldnB次元官网网址檛 see the sandbar. And so thatB次元官网网址檚 why this lighthouse was put in the middle of the river, unlike most that are on the shoreline,B次元官网网址� said preservation society president Kristin Gamble.

The lighthouse is still in use, though now with an automated LED beacon. The preservation society owns the building and maintains it as a museum.

The last full-time keeper, Emil Brunner, retired in 1949 when the lighthouse became automated. He lived there with his family for much of his tenure. One of his daughters and, in the winter, walking across the ice on a safe path marked by her fatherB次元官网网址檚 tobacco juice stains on the frozen surface. Brunner also is portrayed on a 1946 with a child, Christmas presents and a tree in tow, as his wife and other children await their arrival on the lighthouse landing.

Visitors who are ferried to the lighthouse today can explore the keeperB次元官网网址檚 quarters, which are modest but feature river views from every window. And they can climb up the tight spiral staircase to the tower to take in a unique panorama view of the river and the Catskill Mountains to the west.

Roof work on the lighthouse is underway this summer, but repairs to the building will ultimately mean little unless workers address damage to some of the 200 wood pilings packed in mud that hold the lighthouse above water. The support structure has weathered 150 years of currents and ice. But large commercial ships of the modern era B次元官网网址� with their big propellors B次元官网网址� introduce new problems.

B次元官网网址淭hey create a turbulence thatB次元官网网址檚 like being inside a washing machine. And that turbulence actually comes underneath and pulls B次元官网网址� churns up B次元官网网址� the soil underneath us and sucks it away,B次元官网网址� Calhoun said. B次元官网网址淚n fact, there are boulders as big as your car that are 100 feet out in that river that used to be right next to us.B次元官网网址�

The underwater agitation washes away mud around the pilings, leaving them exposed to water. And that accelerates decay of the wood. Engineers estimate the structure could begin to tilt in three to five years, which Gamble said would be B次元官网网址渢he beginning of the end.B次元官网网址�

The proposed ring of corrugated steel would shield the structure from that turbulence. The 100-foot (31-meter) diameter circle, which would project above the water line, would be filled in and covered by a deck, enlarging the area around the lighthouse.

The preservation group is optimistic about getting federal money to help pay for the project. Both of New YorkB次元官网网址檚 U.S. senators, Democrats Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, support the effort, as does local Republican U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro.

Though the project is pricey, Gamble said, it would not only save the lighthouse from being lost to time, but it would also protect the 19th-century beacon for generations to come.

B次元官网网址淲e need, basically, the 100-year fix,B次元官网网址� she said.

Michael Hill, The Associated Press