Hillsboro Inlet Light

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Hillsboro Inlet Light

The Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse (from US Coast Guard archives)
Location: north side of Hillsboro Inlet
Coordinates
WGS-84 (GPS)
26°15′33″N, 80°04′51″W
Foundation: iron piling
Construction: iron
Year first lit: 1907
Automated: 1974
Tower shape: octagonal skeletal with cylinder
Height: 136 feet
Original lens: second-order bivalve Fresnel lens
Range: 28 nm
Characteristic: White, Flashing every 20 seconds

Hillsboro Inlet Light is located on the north side of Hillsboro Inlet, midway between Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton, in Pompano Beach, Florida. The light marks the northern limit of the Florida Reef, an underwater coral formation on the lower east coast of the state. In the second half of the 20th century, this inlet became an increasingly busy waterway. Hillsboro Inlet Light is considered one of the most powerful lights in the Southern United States. It was built in 1907.

The octagonal iron pyramidal tower of the light, first displayed at the 1904 Exposition in St. Louis, has a metal cylinder housing the stairs. Its second-order Fresnel lens emits a light measuring 5.5 megacandela and is placed 136 feet (41 m) above sea level. Now automated, the light acts both as a coastal navigational aide and as a support to local water traffic.

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