At the mouth of the Buffalo River and Erie Canal, the octagonal Buffalo Main Light rises 60 feet in front of you, directly across from the Erie Basin Marina. This octagonal tower was established and lit in 1833 and was later deactivated in 1914. Built on a stone molehead foundation of limestone and cast iron, the tower rises 60 feet (18 m).
In 1857 a third-order Fresnel lens was installed; that lens was later removed to the Buffalo History Museum. This 60-foot-tall, octagonal limestone structure is the oldest still standing in its original location in the city of Buffalo and replaced the original 1818 light on this site. Today it sits as part of an outdoor museum on the grounds of the United States Coast Guard Station, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
In 2010 the Coast Guard announced it would relinquish 4.6 acres of its 31 acres on the point, and Congressman Brian Higgins obtained over $6 million to reconfigure the Coast Guard station to allow public access to the lighthouse. Picture the Erie Basin Marina answering this beacon across the water, both marking the mouth of the Buffalo River and Erie Canal.