The last living vestige of a bygone era is gone: The keeper of a Brooklyn lighthouse, who stood watch over New York's gateway to the Atlantic Ocean for 43 years, has died.

Frank Schubert, 88, was the last of the Coast Guard's civilian lighthouse keepers in the United States, said Petty Officer Mike Hvozda. He died Thursday of natural causes at his cottage beneath the 113-year-old lighthouse on Brooklyn's Coney Island.