Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Let me tell you some of the history of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.  It was built in 1870.  The lighthouse was built on Cape Hatteras to warn passing ships of the dangerous Diamond Shoals:  a series of shifting sand bars that extend from the Point of Cape Hatteras, out 15 miles into the ocean. It is these sandbars that caused hundreds of ships to wreck here over the last 500 or so years and caused this area to be nicknamed "The Graveyard of the Atlantic."

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse in North America.  It stands 198 1/2 feet tall.  When it was first built in 1870, it was red brick.  3 years later, the distinctive black and white stripes were painted on to the lighthouse.  These stripes are called the lighthouse's daymark:  they allow ships to tell where they are at by looking at the markings of the lighthouse.  Earlier in my blog, I pointed out that Bodie Island lighthouse has horizontal black and white stripes (June 23rd).  Each lighthouse along the Coast has a different daymark to aid in navigation.

      

Did you know that this lighthouse was moved?  Read on to learn more!




  In 1999 the lighthouse was moved 1/2 a mile from its original location to where it sits now.  Many visitors asked me, "Why did they move the lighthouse?"  When it was originally built in 1870, the lighthouse stood 1500 feet from the ocean.  By the 1930's the ocean had come to within 100 feet of the base of the lighthouse.  You see, Hatteras Island is a barrier island, and barrier islands are constantly shifting.  The island is moving to the south and the west.  So, we are losing ocean front property, and gaining sound-front property.  Many erosion control measures were tried to save the lighthouse, but they were not successful.  After much discussion and controversy, it was finally decided to move the lighthouse.  Everything you see from the ground up, when you look at the lighthouse, was moved in one piece.  How did they do that?  Well, they dug and sliced under the base, as they did so, they inserted steel beams, until it was totally resting on the beams.  Then they used hydraulics and lifted the lighthouse up and pushed it, very slowly, half a mile.  It took 23 days to push it, over 500 pushes.  Now the lighthouse is 1500 feet away from the ocean, the same distance as when it was built over 140 years ago.  It is a testament to the work done by the original lighthouse builders and the men and women who moved it that no damage was done to the lighthouse when it was moved.  Now my shortened version of the moving of Cape Hatteras LIghthouse in no way does justice to the story of the move.  If you are interested in the moving of the lighthouse, here is a link, which explains it in move detail:

http://www.nps.gov/caha/historyculture/movingthelighthouse.htm

This photo shows the move path the lighthouse took in 1999.  The original location of the lighthouse is on the beach in the upper part of the photo, to the left of the black jetty extending into the ocean: