Cape Henry Lighthouse, Virginia Beach

It was pretty windy and chilly this morning. We were there alittle early and the lighthouse was not open for any tours.

Today, the old Cape Henry Lighthouse silently guards the entry way into the Chesapeake Bay. Standing near the spot where in 1607 Captain Newport raised a cross to offer thanks for their safe crossing of the Atlantic, the Lighthouse is opened to the public on a seasonal schedule.
The architectural integrity of the tower is representative of one of John McComb's best and most important constructions. The Light also symbolizes the first bold steps the nation's new government took to fulfill its obligations to its people. With the construction of the Cape Henry Lighthouse, the waters of the Chesapeake Bay became navigable and safe insuring steady trade and commerce on the Virginia and Maryland coasts.

There had been a need for a lighthouse since before the Revolution. The Colony of Virginia and then the state of Virginia could never raise the funds needed to build the structure. By November 1789, the Virginia General Assembly provided conveyance of the land "lying and being in the County of Princess Anne at the place commonly called the head land of Cape Henry" to the new government "for the purpose of building a lighthouse." Alexander Hamilton contracted with John McComb, Jr. of New York on 31 March 1791. McComb had been the designer of the Government House, the planned residence for the President, in New York City

Located at 583 Atlantic Ave., Fort Story, Virginia 23459
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; December 24, 25, 31, & January 1
Lighthouse Closed December 5 - January 4 (Gift Shop Open)
Admission: Adults(including seniors) $3.00, Children 6-12 $2.00(under 6 are free)
Museum Shop

On April 26, 1607, after just over four months aboard the confines of three small ships, 104 sea-weary English colonists laid eyes upon the shores of Virginia. Exhausted by the ever rolling aquamarine sea these adventurers must have seen the lush green terra firma beyond the sand dunes as paradise lost and found again. Captain Christopher Newport, admiral of the fleet, brought his ships to anchor within the protected waters of the bay. Sent by the Virginia Company of London to explore and establish a new English colony, Newport, Edward Maria Wingfield, future President of the ruling council, Bartholomew Gosnold, a member of the council, and about 30 others, ventured ashore. What they found, according to George Percy, were "fair meadows and goodly tall trees, with such fresh waters running through the woods as I was almost ravished at the first sight thereof." Near the end of the day, as these intrepid adventures returned to their ships, they encountered some Indians and a conflict erupted that left two of the English wou

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First Landing State Park is just south of Fort Story. This cross is right on Fort Story right next to the Cape Henry Lighthouses and is apparently part of the First Landing State Park.

The large granite cross put up in 1935 by the Daughters of the American Colonists is to commemorate the first landing of the English colonists in VA in 1609.

The inscription on the bottom on the cross says:

"Here at Capt Henry first landed in America upon 26 April 1607 those English colonists who upon 13 May 1607 established at Jamestown, Virginia the first permanent English settlement in America"

Erected by
National Society Daughters
of the Amerian Colonists
April 26, 1935


Access to the site is free

This is the girls at the First Landing Site Park. They are walking up to the Landing cross memorial and you can see both Old and New Cape Henry Lighthouses behind them.

This is a very nice park and it is located on the Army base right on the oceanfront.

As the official symbol of the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia, the Cape Henry Lighthouse receives about 60,000 visitors a year. It will cost you $2 per person to climb the lighthouse. At the top of the stairway inside is a small ladder that goes through a very small opening to the lantern room. From the lantern room you can see the new lighthouse.

The New Cape Henry Lighthouse is a 164-foot octagonal tower made up of masonry inner-walls and cast iron plated outer-walls, making it the tallest such lighthouse in the U.S. It has a first-order Fresnel lens and is painted in black and white alternating vertical stripes. The light was automated in 1984 and has an intensity of 80,000 candlepower. Overlooking the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, its 20-second flashing light can be seen for only about 15 miles out to sea because of the bright lights from the surrounding city.

The recommendations of 1872 did not get immediate attention or at least approval and were repeated yearly. Finally, $75,000 was appropriated on June 10th 1878 for the construction of a new lighthouse and it’s associated facilities. These were completed at a site some 357 feet southeast from the old tower in 1881. The last keeper of the old light and the first keeper of the new facility, Jay D. Edwards, lighted the new beam on December 15th, 1881.

Cape Henry Lighthouse is the first lighthouse structure authorized, fully completed, and lighted by the newly organized Federal Government. It 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, and it was lighted in that same month.

From early colonial times Chesapeake Bay boasted a substantial volume of shipping. For decades, however, efforts to gain the benefits of a lighthouse were unsuccessful. The division of the Bay into two political entities, Virginia and Maryland, made unified action difficult; the comparative regularity of the coast off the Virginia Capes made it seem less pressing; and there was difficulty in getting agreement among so many interested, and often conflicting parties -- the two houses of the Maryland and Virginia Assemblies, the British Government, Lord Baltimore, and British merchants trading to the Chesapeake. The lighthouse was not erected until this complex situation had been simplified with the establishment of the Federal Government. Then it became the first whose authorization and complete construction were undertaken.

The oil-burning lamps of the Cape Henry Lighthouse were first lighted late in October, 1792. From reports and indications noted through the years, the light at Cape Henry burned with regularity in subsequent years. The lantern itself, of course, underwent a number of improvements, and there were some structural improvements as well.

We drove down to Fort Story Army base which is oceanfront and 88th street. We went through the military check point and drove into the base to the 2 Lighthouses.

This is the originial Cape Henry Lighthouse. There is a new one located across the road,
This one is my favorite one.

The 2nd Cape Henry Lighthouses was built in 1881 only 350 feet from the old tower. This lighthouse stands 165ft and had a First-Order lens installed, these lighthouses have mark the entrance to the Chesapeak Bay since 1791. These lighthouses are located on Fort Henry grounds and they will inspect your car/truck apon entrance, there is no cost to get on the Fort Henry Base but you must stay to the main road in or you may get in trouble this is still an active base, there is also a public beach here.

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; December 24, 25, 31, & January 1
Lighthouse Closed December 5 - January 4 (Gift Shop Open)
Admission: Adults(including seniors) $3.00, Children 6-12 $2.00(under 6 are free)