The lighthouse at Point Sur, on the central coast of California, sits on a dramatic mound, connected to the shore, often enshrouded in fog. One of the buildings on top of the rock contains an interpretive display about the USS Macon, an airship that crashed into the ocean off the point in 1935, witnessed by the lighthouse keepers at the time. The Macon was the second of two similar rigid airships made in the early 1930s, in Goodyear’s giant hangar in Akron, Ohio. Like the other, the USS Akron, it was 785 feet long—the largest flying craft ever made in the USA. The USS Akron was deployed to the base in Lakehurst, New Jersey, to guard the east coast, and the USS Macon, finished two years later, was deployed to Moffett Field, California, to guard the west coast. In 1933, two years after it was built, the USS Akron crashed into the ocean off the coast of New Jersey, killing 73 of the 76 crewmen on board. Two years later, and two years after it was constructed, its twin, the USS Macon, crashed into the Pacific. The ship fell slowly, allowing time for the crew to put lifejackets on, helping 74 of the 76 crew on board to survive. The loss of the USS Macon put an end to the rigid airship program in the US. The wreckage lies on the bottom of the ocean, more than 1,400 feet down, and has been documented by robotic submarines.