Visitors to the Twin Lights during the afternoon of July 4 gathered together and with historian Nick Wood recited the Pledge of Allegiance as it was first said at the historic site for the first time April 25, 1893.
The ceremony was part of the Fourth of July celebrations at the site, where visitors can climb both towers or have a private tour of the museum and the grounds and outbuildings as well as make their own tours and visits to all the sites on the grounds.
Dressed in the official lighthouse keeper’s uniform of the earlier part of the 20th century, Historian Nick Wood gave a brief history of the importance of the flag at the Twin Lights, and how it was raised on a 135-foot tall “national flagpole” for a review of US Naval vessels as well as visiting ships invited by President Grover Cleveland during east coast ceremonies that coincided with the Chicago World’s Fair.
The site was selected so that immigrants coming to America in the 1890s would see the stars and stripes of the 44 start flag as their first view on the country as they entered from across the Atlantic Ocean.
Wood traced the history of the pledge, the several changes that were made from the first “I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” To the present. The latest change was in 1955 when the Knights of Columbus petitioned for “under God” to be included as a reminder during the Cold War that in the United States there is freedom of religion.
