1. Chesapeake Bay Lighthouses
By Phyllis Butler

2. Chesapeake Lighthouses
Contents
Types of Lighthouses
About Chesapeake Lighthouses
Lighthouses around the Bay
November 29, 2018

3. Types of Lighthouses

4. Towers and Cottages
Towers and cottages were the first lighthouses in Chesapeake Bay.
Usually made out of stone or brick, and were built in viewing distance for ships.
Were used until the 1800’s because they came up with a more efficient light source for the ships.
The oldest of this type is still lit in Maryland today.
Shore erosion damaged many of these lighthouses.
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5. Concord Point Lighthouse
Havre, Maryland
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6. Screwpiles Built between 1854-1900.
Built in with iron legs, which are stabilized into the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay.
Normally placed on mouths of rivers or shoals.
Because of manmade barriers against currents and high winds screwpiles were the best design.
42 of this type were built in the Bay.
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7. Drum Point Lighthouse Calvert Museum, Solomons Island
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8. Caisson Lights The sturdiest lighthouses in the Bay.
12 were built between
Used to help ships in the Bay’s deepest water.
Built on platforms, which were sunken deep into the water.
On the platforms are towers, which raise the lighthouse above the water.
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9. Sandy Point Shoal
Sandy Point State Park
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10. Lightships First lightship was built in 1820, and the last was 1960.
Wooden sail powered vessels that were used as floating lights.
Were built to sustain harsh conditions that lighthouses would never be able to stand.
Mostly used in deep waters and shoals.
They soon became equipped with more advanced lighting and radio technology.
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11. Lightship 116, Chesapeake
museum vessel by the Baltimore Maritime Museum
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12. About Chesapeake Bay Lighthouses
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13. Chesapeake Lighthouses
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14. Lighthouses
Today there are 30 lighthouses along the bay, but only 23 of those are used for navigation.
There were originally 74 lighthouses that illuminated the Chesapeake Bay.
In the 1900’s electricity replaced oil and lighthouse keepers.
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16. Chesapeake Lighthouses
When Lighthouse services begun it was 1812.
Land Purchased by the Federal Government. In 1832.
Lighthouse construction was completed in 1833.
Keeper’s house was demolished due to vandalism in 1971.
In 1948, Fannie May Salter retires. Station becomes automated.
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17. November 29, 2018

18. The nation’s second tallest lighthouse Is in Virginia.
Before the invention of modern navigation, sailors depended on lighthouses to warn them of dangerous shallow water areas in the bay.
Each lighthouse flashes a different pattern of light to signify their location.
Early Chesapeake Bay lighthouses were towers of brick or stone built along the coastline.
Virginia has 11 historic lighthouse, 9 of which are active and 1 historic lightship.
The nation’s second tallest lighthouse Is in Virginia.
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20. Map of Lighthouses
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21. Lighthouses around the Bay

22. Most of Virginia’s lighthouses are off limits to the public.
Local Preservation efforts, formally weak, have strengthened in recent years.
Many Virginia lighthouses have been lost, including all of the former screwpile lighthouses of the Chesapeake Bay and the James, York, and Rappahannock rivers.
The Tangier Sounds lighthouse, a square cottage screwpile was demolished in 1961.
Rappahannock lighthouse is the second tallest aid to navigation in the country.
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23. Windmill Point lighthouse has been inactive since 1954.
The Smith Point lighthouse replaced an 1868 screwpile light house, destroyed by ice in 1895.
Windmill Point lighthouse has been inactive since 1954.
The Great Wicomico River lighthouse was demolished in 1967.
The Sting Ray lighthouse is a museum and also serves as the office of Sting Ray Harbor Marina.
Wolf Trap is located on a dangerous shoal in the Chesapeake south of the mouth of the Rappahannock. It has been active since 1894.
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24. York Spit was demolished in 1960.
The New Point Comfort Lighthouse is located on a very small island in Chesapeake.
It was renovated in 1988, severely vandalized in 1994, then repaired and relit December 12, 1999.
York Spit was demolished in 1960.
York Spit has been active since 1870.
Tue Marshes has been active since 1875.
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25. Thomas Point Lighthouse
One of the most popular lighthouses along the Chesapeake Bay.
It was put into use in November 1875, and lighthouse keepers kept the light burning for over a century.
It was replaced with electricity in 1986.
Still in operation today in Annapolis, at the mouth of the South River.
National historic landmark, and is owned by Coast Guard Actives Baltimore.
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26. Thomas Point Lighthouse
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27. Assateague Island Lighthouse
Was first built in 1831,and was 45 feet tall
Construction of the new lighthouse was starter in 1860 but was stopped cause of civil war and was resumed in 1865, and finished in 1867
Coast guards owns lighthouse
The tower has a unique dumbwaiter system alcoved into the water
The Argand Lamp displayed a beam for 14 nautical miles.
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28. Assateague Island Lighthouse
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29. Old Cape Henry Lighthouse
Was Constructed in 1791
Was 1st to be authorized, completed and established by the U.S. Congress
In 1862 the confederate army removed 1st order Frensel lens and destroyed the lantern.
Light was repaired shortly after but was extinguished in 1881 due to structure being unstable
The Lighthouse cost was a little over $15,000
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30. Old Cape Henry Lighthouse
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
                         
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
                         
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
                         
                         
                         
Old Cape Henry Lighthouse
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31. New Cape Henry Lighthouse
Located within Fort Story
Constructed to replace Old Cape Henry Lighthouse in 1791and was 163 ft. tall
Was electrified in 1923
Became 2nd Lighthouse in U.S. to have radio beacon in 1929
Was built with prefabricated cast iron plates
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32. New Cape Henry Lighthouse
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33. Old Point Comfort Lighthouse
Was built in 1802
Badly battered by naval gunfire in the Civil War
54 ft. tall and was constructed with sandstone
Has been owned by U.S. army since 1973
Was built in typical Colonial Revival Style
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34. Old Point Comfort Lighthouse
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35. Newport News Middleground Lighthouse
Was built in 1891
In Hampton Roads, Virginia
Because of Naval Base in Norfolk the lighthouse board requested a light house built on shallow area
1,000 tons of riprap stone were set to protect the lighthouse from the current
The oldest caisson construction of the Chesapeake Bay
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36. Newport News Middleground Lighthouse
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37. The End