Seeing The Light

NC’s Lighthouses:

Cape Hatteras and Currituck Island

North Carolina’s coastline juts well out into the Atlantic Ocean with serious attitude. It claims the distinction of owning the easternmost point in all of the United States, and catches more than its share of hurricanes and nor’easter storms.

The beautiful Cape Hatteras lighthouse is the most famous lighthouse in America, and originally sat right on that eastern most point of sand. Back in 1793 when the nation was still in its infancy, funds were released by the U.S. Congress to build a mighty lighthouse to mark the notorious Diamond Shoals sandbar, graveyard to more ships than anyone cared to count.

Diamond Shoals marks the meeting place of the two great Atlantic currents, the cold water Labrador current and the warm north-bound Gulf Stream. Their meeting creates shifting sandbars just beneath the surface, making for some very dangerous waters. Illness in the building crews delayed the completion of the lighthouse until 1803, when it was lit for the very first time. The original light consisted of 18 oil lamps with 14″ reflectors, providing a beam that could be seen from 12 miles offshore.

That simply wasn’t enough light to mark the shoals, so in the mid 1800s the lighting system was modified and additions to the octagonal tower were made, raising it to the height of 150 feet. Yet it was still inadequate to light the cape and shoals, so a new location was chosen and a new lighthouse was built in 1870, and its height of 198 feet makes it the tallest lighthouse in America as well as the world’s tallest brick lighthouse. It boasted a 1st-order Fresnel lens and served mariners well until erosion again became an issue, and a skeletal tower was built about a mile inland in 1936.

In 1999 the lighthouse was moved to its present location, and it’s still shining to warn mariners of the dangerous shoals. It’s a very popular North Carolina tourist attraction, and is open to the public. A small fee will allow you to climb the 257 steps to the light and catch a breathtaking view of the ocean, the outer banks strands, and the piedmont stretching toward the west.

Lighting those dangerous shoals was very important to maritime trade as well as travel in the days of the tall ships. Another of North Carolina’s storied lighthouses is the Currituck Beach Light, the last of four beacons placed at intervals from Cape Henry, Virginia to Cape Hatteras. To grasp the importance of lighting this entire stretch of coast, consider the text of a letter written to Congress for consideration of the matter:

“…the earnest attention of Congress (is) called to the importance of establishing this needful lighthouse. The distance from Body’s Island ( early spelling of Bodie Island ) to Cape Henry is eighty miles, of which there is an unlighted space of forty miles. The land along the coast in this vicinity is low and in many places without trees, so even in daytime there is a danger of vessels getting into unsafe proximity to the coast before becoming aware of it. The danger is enhanced by the fact that vessels bound around Cape Hatteras from the northern and eastern ports keep well to the westward, in order to avoid the strong current of the Gulf Stream, and for the additional reason they have a favorable current of about a mile an hour, nearly as far as Hatteras, and a smoother sea in bad weather; but in the absence of powerful sea-coast lights sufficiently near each other to give warning of approach to danger, many vessels laden with valuable lives and cargoes are in danger of being lost between these points.”

Congress did approve building this lighthouse in the 1860s, but the Civil War intervened in its actual construction. It was begun in 1873 and completed in 1875, when it was first lit in December. Because all the lighthouses along the Outer Banks looked alike, it was ordered that they all be painted different patterns in order to make them recognizable to mariners. Currituck was left in its original unpainted brick state, and remains unpainted to this day.

The tower was granted to the Outer Banks Conservationists in 2003, and the light station has been restored along with the grounds. The historic Whalehead [hunt] Club was built nearby in the 1920s, and has also been restored for the public. The tour costs $7 and is well worth the expense.

Links:

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Currituck Beach Lighthouse

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Filed under Carolina History, Lighthouses, Outer Banks, Family Activities |