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(Old) Cape Henry Lighthouse is the third oldest lighthouse still standing in the U.S. and the oldest on the Chesapeake Bay.
The Colony of Virginia could not raise the funds for the lighthouse they needed. Finally in 1791, Alexander Hamilton contracted with John McComb, Jr. of New York to design the lighthouse. McComb had been the designer of the planned residence for the President, in New York City. Cape Henry was the first lighthouse structure authorized, fully completed, and lighted by the newly organized Federal Government.
The lighthouse is an octagonal stone structure, faced with hewn or hammer-dressed stone -- the first of three lighthouses to be built by John McComb, Jr. The tower was completed in October, 1792. George Washington appointed Laban Goffigan, probably of Norfolk, to become the first keeper to light the fish oil burning lamps of Cape Henry Lighthouse.
In 1870 the tower began to crack and a replacement was built and put into service in 1881. The old lighthouse was not torn down because it continued to be a day marker for navigation, and was recognized for historical and architectural significance. In 1930 the old tower and 1.77 acres were deeded to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities
The tower is run by the APVA and is open to be climbed
Hours
* 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.--Nov. 1-March 15
* 10 a.m-5 p.m.--March 16-Oct. 31
* Site Closed Thanksgiving Day
* Lighthouse Closed December 5 - January 4 (Gift Shop Open) because it is decorated for Christmas and there are too many wires and cords for it to be safe for visitors to climb.
Admission: Adults(including seniors) $3.00, Children 6-12 $2.00 (under 6 are free)
Directions:
* From I-64 in Norfolk take Exit 282 for Route 13 North - Northampton Blvd.
* Take the exit for Route 60 - Shore Drive and turn right
* After crossing into Seashore/First Landing State Park turn left into the west gate of Fort Story. BE PREPARED TO SHOW ID to get onto the Fort. Leave a Comment
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This was the first lighthouse on the Florida Gulf Coast. It is on a site one half mile west of the original lighthouse and stands as the back of the range which marks the only entrance into Pensacola harbor. The lighthouse is on the Naval Air Station just past the big Air Museum. Getting onto the base requires showing an ID but isn't difficult.
During the Civil War the Fresnel lens which was made in Paris by Henri LaPaite was taken out of the tower for safekeeping. It has been reinstalled in the lighthouse which is still a working aid to navigation. The lightkeeper's house was built in 1869 and the light was electrified in 1939 and automated in 1965. The light can be seen for 27 miles..
Weather permitting, tours are given on Sundays from May to September between 12 and 3:30 pm. We visited in December, so of course we couldn't go on a tour. Visitors must climb 177 steps and I wouldn't have wanted to do that anyway. Children under 6 years of age are not permited in the tower. Leave a Comment
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Many American states have great systems of State Parks. Many have drive-in campsites. The cost is usually quite reasonable. You can set up a tent or lean-to, or sleep in a camper or van. Some have campling areas that do not allow vehicles. Usually the parks are centered around a lake, mountains or seashore. Visiting one of these parks can be a pleasant quiet time with nature or be like moving into an American vacation town. People are very friendly and this could really be a great experience meeting some pretty wholesome American families. Of course, where there are lots of people there can be crime, so take common sense precautions.
When travelling by road and entering a state be sure to visit its visitors center when you cross the border if you see one. Usually they will give you a free map with sites of interest including state parks listed. Leave a Comment
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The water here is over 140 feet deep and the lighthouse warns of the dramatic shoaling up to only 6 feet.
This is one of the last lighthouses built on the Chesapeake Bay. The fact that it was built at all is a testimony to the importance of Baltimore as a commercial port.
An iron caisson was designed - 30 feet in diameter and 30 feet high with a tower on top that would be 37 feet tall with a total height above the water of 54 feet. Because of the extreme instability of the bottom (a 55 foot layer of semi-fluid mud before a sand bottom was hit), the plans were revised. At one point the whole structure was pushed over by tides and was lying on its side.
When completed, the caisson stood 82 feet below sea level, on top of 91 piles driven into the bottom. It was the tallest caisson light in the world at the time. The brick dwelling / light tower was constructed the following year
Almost at once, the action of the tides caused the caisson to start leaning. At one point it was about 5 degrees out of level. Work was done in 1883 to try to stabilize the tower by dredging and dumping rock round it. In 1885 760 tons of stone was placed around the tower to further defray the scouring of the bottom from around the light. This work brought the light to within 2 degrees of vertical and has stayed that way up to this day.
In 1960, a fire started in the equipment room. The keepers were barely able to get off the light before the fire reached the 500 gallon gas tank and the whole light exploded. The Coast Guard fought the fire for over 6 hours before it was put out. The whole interior was consumed by the intense heat of the fire and has never been rebuilt. It was just cleaned out and the light automated.
It is only 0.9 miles off shore, south of Kent Island, but really can only be seen from a boat. It is an active aid to navigation and is not open to the public. The Lighthouse was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 2 December 2002. Leave a Comment
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 by Paul2001Leave a Comment
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 Lazarette Lighthouse half
hidden by a ship by grandmaR, 1 more photos
By 1920 the light was considered almost useless because it could not be seen due to all the buildings. In 1926 the Lighthouse Board gave up and erected a taller steel skeleton tower to replace the old lighthouse. This light went into service on September 27, 1926 and the next day work began on demolishing the old tower.
The original 31 foot tall brick tower was built here because the government already owned the land where originally there was a smallpox hospital. It was the 10th one of the 12 lighthouses built by John Donahoo.
Seven of his lighthouses still stand
* Pooles Island Light (1825)
* Concord Point Light (1827)
* Cove Point Light (1828)
* Point Lookout Light (1830)
* Turkey Point Light (1833)
* Piney Point Light (1836)
* Fishing Battery Light (1853)
And one extra one (Blackistone Light - 1851) has been reconstructed.
In 1872 the lighthouse site became the construction site to producing the framework for screwpile lighthouses and did some assembly of caisson type lights prior to floating them to their sites.
In 1985, the new owners of the Rukert Terminals Corporation, decided to erect a replica of the Lazaretto Point light to honor Rukerts, Sr.'s memory. The replica was built from the original plans that were found at the National Archives.
D I R E C T I O N S
From Baltimore Inner Harbor:
East on East Pratt Street,
Right onto South President Street,
Bear left onto Fleet Street,
Right onto South Chester Street,
Left onto Boston Street,
Right onto south Clinton Street,
Left onto Keith Avenue,
then make a slight right onto Mertens Avenue to the entrance to the Lehigh Cement Corporation. Leave a Comment
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On the north side of the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is this very distinctive red lighthouse. Sandy Point is a state park.
Under Construction
In 1883 the Sandy Point Shoal caisson with a 37-foot Empire-style eight-sided, red brick tower with a white roof and black lantern housing a 4th order Fresnel lens was built. This caisson replaced an earlier Sandy Point Light that had been built on land where Sandy Point State Park is located now. It was an on shore brick tower constructed in 1858 that was situated in a poor location.
Sandy Point Shoal Light has a wooden caisson foundation supporting a round 35-foot-diameter cement-filled cast-iron cylinder on which a 2 1/2-story octagonal brick structure rests. The structure is 24 by 24 feet with truncated corners giving it an octagonal shape. Although not originally painted, the brick portion of the structure is now painted red. The wooden third story mansard roof is painted white, the lantern is painted black, and the gallery deck is painted a dark red/brown. The first two stories were used as living quarters, the third level as the watch room, and the lower level within the cast iron cylinder, as a storage area for water, coal, and oil.
It was electrified in 1929 and fully automated in 1963. The landing ladder on the west side is still used.
The lighthouse is situated in 5 to 7 feet of water approximately 1000 yards east from the beach at Sandy Point State Park and approximately 1 1/2 miles north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
Because of its location, the lighthouse was open to vandalism and in 1979 the Coast Guard discovered that someone had completely smashed the handmade 19th century crystal Fresnel lens, apparently with a baseball bat. It has been replaced with an acrylic lens. Major restoration work was undertaken by the Coast Guard in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Not open to the public Leave a Comment
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This old lighthouse sits on United States Navy property. This lighthouse was deactivated in 1929 and replaced with another lighthouse.. Originally within the town of Mayport, the land became a military base during the WWII era. When the base was built, the land was raised about 20 feet and filled to make stable runways. The base of the lighthouse including the door is buried underground. The outline of the oil house roof can still be seen on the side of the lighthouse just to the left of the tree above the fence. Access is through a window.
I found the story of this lighthouse intriguing, so we went to visit it. We had no problem getting onto the base because my husband is retired military. Non-military visitors probably need to contact the base in advance to arrange for a pass.
This is one of the few pictures where I managed to get the lighthouse straight. Plus I had dropped grease on the camera lens, so there was a blurry section in each photo that I took that day until I realized I had a problem and cleaned the lens. Anyway, we could see the outline of the oil house quite clearly, but it doesn't show well in this picture.
A newer lighthouse was built about 2 miles southeast of this one. I didn't realize that it was also on the base, and I didn't get a picture of it but the URL below has one.
Efforts are underway through citizens of Mayport to have this lighthouse brought back into the realm of the community. From a heritage tourism standpoint, the lighthouse is an important element of the community. Leave a Comment
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 Point No Point with charter
fishing boat by grandmaR, 4 more photos
The light is 52 feet above the water - octagon shaped with 11 foot sides. The first two stories are brick with the 3rd floor watch room is wood. It was fully automated in 1938. The interior of this light is in very poor condition. It is not open and you can't drive to it, as it's two miles off shore. The closest viewing place is 100 yards across private property.
It is near the USN Targets. A Brit. who called the CG called it "Your No Point Point, or Point Pointless or whatever it is". He wanted to know if his course was out of target range, but since he was talking to the Baltimore CG, they didn't have a clue.
In August of 2000 when we were passing the light, the Navy was using the targets. As we passed Point No Point, the wind picked up and we were 'racing' another sailboat. He had a big headsail and was really heeled over. I tried to see how far we were heeled by looking over the side to see how much of the bottom paint showed, but couldn't do it - Bob said I would fall in.
He was winning, but as we approached the targets, we called the range boat, and asked if we were OK.. The other boat dropped behind us after the radio exchange This time it was helicopters - usually we see jets, but sometimes it is even gunboats.
Later, thro binoculars, saw them put 3 men on the Point No Point lighthouse from a little boat maybe 20 feet long. The men looked like dollhouse figures on an out of scale boat - about 1/2 to 1/3rd as tall as the boat was long. There were four on the bow, and each of them would leap for the ladder and then I could see them attain the platform level. Leave a Comment
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 New Point Comfort - abandoned
lighthouse by grandmaR, 4 more photos
The Chesapeake Chapter of the Lighthouse Society says about this lighthouse:
The New Point Comfort light, the third oldest light on the Bay, was built in 1804. It is located at the entrance to Mobjack Bay and the mouth of the York River in Mathews County, Virginia.
In 1865 the 63-foot tower was fitted with a new fourth-order Fresnel lens that allowed the light to be visible for 13 miles. The light was automated in 1930.
In 1933 a hurricane struck and washed away much of the land around the lighthouse causing it to be stranded on a very small island a few 100 yards from the tip of the mainland.
In 1968 the Coast Guard abandoned the station. In 1972 a concerned group of county residents had the light placed on the Virginia Historic Landmarks List. In 1975 the light was deeded to Mathews County. The county, through grants and gifts has done about $125,000 dollars worth of repairs to the tower including the building of a small dock for access. Vandalism continues to be a problem with the light but it can be visited by boat or it is said that one can wade out to the light at low tide. Leave a Comment
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