Cape Charles Light

Cape Charles Light

Cape Charles Light in 1995 (Ralph Eshelman/NPS)
Location	Smith Island off Cape Charles at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay
Coordinates
Year first lit	1828 (first light) 1895 (current light)
Automated	1963
Construction	cast iron skeleton tower
Tower shape	Octagonal
Height	180 ft
Original lens	First order Fresnel lens
Current lens	Vega solar-powered beacon
Range	24 miles
Characteristic	5 sec Flashing white

The current Cape Charles Light is a skeleton tower lighthouse at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on Smith Island. It is the tallest lighthouse in Virginia and the second tallest in the United States. It is the third light at this location.

References

"Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Virginia". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. http://www.uscg.mil/history/weblighthouses/LHVA.asp.
Inventory of Historic Light Stations - Virginia Lighthouses: Cape Charles Light for National Park Service Maritime Heritage Program website
NOAA Nautical Chart 12224 Chesapeake Bay: Cape Charles to Wolf Trap
Cape Charles Lighthouse, Virginia from LighthouseFriends.com
de Gast, Robert (1973). The Lighthouses of the Chesapeake. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 142–147.

External links

Chesapeake Bay Lighthouse Project - Cape Charles Light

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

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Category:National Register of Historic Places Portal:National Register of Historic Places

Lighthouses of Virginia

Assateague Light • Back River Light • Bells Rock Light • Bowlers Rock Light • Cape Charles Light • Cape Henry Light • Cherrystone Bar Light • Chesapeake Light • Craney Island Light • Deepwater Shoals Light • Dutch Gap Canal Lights • Great Wicomico River Light • Hog Island Light • Jones Point Light • Jordan Point Light • Killock Shoal Light • Lambert Point Light • Nansemond River Light • New Point Comfort Light • Newport News Middle Ground Light • Old Plantation Flats Light • Old Point Comfort Light • Pages Rock Light • Point of Shoals Light • Pungoteague Creek Light • Smith Point Light • Stingray Point Light • Tangier Sound Light • Thimble Shoal Light • Tue Marshes Light • Watts Island Light • White Shoal Light • Windmill Point Light • Wolf Trap Light • York Spit Light