Leading Point Light
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Leading Point Light | |
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Undated photograph of Leading Point Light (USCG) |
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Location: | Leading Point west of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on the south bank of the Patapsco River |
Coordinates WGS-84 (GPS) |
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Year first lit: | 1868 |
Deactivated: | 1924 |
Construction: | brick |
Tower shape: | house with lantern/daymark on roof |
Height: | 34 ft |
The Leading Point Light was an unusual lighthouse which displayed the rear light to the Brewerton Channel Range. It was eventually superseded by an iron tower on the same foundation.
[edit] History
This light was built in 1868, along with the Hawkins Point Light, to provide range lights marking the Brewerton Channel, excavated in the 1850s to provide a fixed deepwater channel into Baltimore Harbor. In form, it was like no other lighthouse in the area, a brick house with a short tower holding the lantern surmounted with a tall pole supporting a large ball, to be used as a daymark.
In 1924 both lights in this range were torn down and replaced with skeleton towers, which remain in use.
[edit] References
- Maryland Light Stations, from the United States Coast Guard
- Brewerton Range Front Light, from the Chesapeake Chapter of the United States Lighthouse Society
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