Sapelo Island Light

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Sapelo Island Light

Sapelo Island Light
Location: Darien, Georgia
Coordinates
WGS-84 (GPS)
31.392° N 81.2852° W
Year first constructed: 1820
Year first lit: 1820
Deactivated: 1905 to 1998
Construction: Brick
Tower shape: Conical
Markings/Pattern: 6 alternate red and white horizontal
Height: 80 ft (24 m)
Original lens: Lewis lamp (1820)
Fourth order Fresnel lens (1854)
Characteristic: Fixed white varied by a white flash every 45 s

Sapelo Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse in Georgia, United States, near the southern tip of Sapelo Island, Georgia. It is the nation's second-oldest brick lighthouse and the oldest survivor of Winslow Lewis lighthouse projects.

[edit] History

Skeleton tower that stood from 1905 to 1933
Skeleton tower that stood from 1905 to 1933

Sapelo Island Lighthouse was built in 1820. It was designed and built by Winslow Lewis. It had a fifteen Lewis lamps with 16 in (41 cm) reflectors. In the 1850s, the tower was raised by 10 ft (3.0 m) and a fourth-order Fresnel lens was installed in 1854. During the Civil War, the lens was removed. It was extensively repaired after a 1867 storm and relit in 1868. The tower was damaged by a hurricane in 1898.

The lighthouse was replaced in 1905 by the a pyramidal 100 ft (30 m) skeletal tower wtih a thrid-oder Fresnel lens. This tower was dismantled and relocated in 1934 to South Fox Island, Michigan.

Sapelo Island Lighthouse was inactive from 1905 to 1998, and is now privately maintained and unofficial. The original lighthouse was renovated to its 1890 appearance in 1998 when it was relit.[1][2][3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.uscg.mil/history/weblighthouses/LHGA.html U.S. Coast Guard history of Sapelo Island Light
  2. ^ Roberts, Bruce, and Jones, Ray, Southern Lighthouses: Outer Banks to Cape Florida, 3rd ed., Globe Pequot Press, Guilford, CT, 2002, p. 57, ISBN 0-7627-1243-0.
  3. ^ http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=326 Lighthouse Friends history