 |
 Cape
Hatteras Lighthouse
Fact Sheet:
- Completed
- (activated) Dec. 16, 1870
- Height
to top - 198 feet, 2½ inches
(tallest masonry lighthouse in the
U.S. and the second tallest
brick light tower in the world.
Figures at the new location, as given by the National Park
Service, are as follows:- Tip of the spire - 210.01 feet above Mean Sea Level
- Tip of the spire - approx. 197.5 ft. above ground
- Height
to focal plane - 192.2 ft. (new location)
- Beacon
Type - 2 DCB-24 rotating beacons
back to back with 1000 watt lights
focused by parabolic reflectors
- Beacon
distance - 24 nautical
miles (about 20 statute miles)
- Light
pattern - rotating beacon,
7½ seconds between lamps
(15 sec. per complete rotation for 8 flashes per minute).
- dusk to dawn
- No.
of lighthouse steps - (depends
on which steps you count) -
9 granite steps from the sidewalk
to the inside, 248 cast iron
steps to reach the gallery,
and 12 more to the lantern
room. Thus, visitors climb
257, Keeper climbs 269.
- Open
to public to climb - Yes (approx.
Good Friday/Easter through
Columbus Day or week of Columbus
Day)
- Location
- near Buxton:
Plaque in lighthouse gives 35° 15'
14" N Latitude
and 75° 30' 56" W Longitude, though the National Park
Service gives the original (pre-move in 1999) coordinates
as 35° 15'
18.6" N
latitude, 75° 31' 10.5'W
longitude, and gives the new coordinates
after move as 35° 15'
01.92560" N
latitude, 75° 31' 43.74342'W
longitude
- Keeper's
Houses - Duplex Asst. Keepers
Quarters open to public as
visitor center/museum. Brick
Keepers Quarters not open to
public.
- Management
- Beacon operation maintained
by the U.S. Coast Guard. Lighthouse,
grounds and visitor center
operated by National Park Service.
- How
to get there - From NC 12 on
east side of Buxton, turn south
at lighthouse grounds entrance
marked by signage.
|
Cape
Hatteras Lighthouse in 1973 (above)
and in 2003 (below).
 |
 "Disappointment.
That's the first word that
comes to mind after visiting
the lighthouse for the
first time in 30 years.
Relieved? Yes. It is much
safer here than in the
old location. Pleased?
Yes. It has a new coat
of paint, and park service
people swarming about to
see that all is well and
the lighthouse is taken
care of.
Disappointed?
Yes, most of all. This grand, unique, mystical spire
has stood proudly and defiantly for more than a century
against dozens of terrible hurricanes and storms. It
has endured consistent neglect and occasional vandalism.
Yet it retained a quiet dignity next to the waves that
constantly threatened it, and the dunes and sea oats
that eventually abandoned it.
Now
that is gone, and much has been lost. It stands in
the middle of a mosquito infested swamp, surrounded
by supervised inflexibility in its new life, existing
in an atmosphere somewhere between a theme park and
a circus. The lighthouse is safe, but the adventure
is gone.
Perhaps
in another hundred years, when the park service ticket
booth and gift shop are rotting away, hidden beneath
the overgrowth, people will still make their way along
a worn path winding among the scrubby pines. Fighting
back the limbs and brush that grabs at their clothing
and scratches their arms, they finally break through
the dense growth to reach the imposing marble base.
They
will look up with awe at the grand, unique, mystical
spire that has stood proudly and defiantly for more
than two centuries against innumerable hurricanes and
vicious storms, endured neglect and vandalism, and
survived an epic move of engineering history. Though
its paint is chipped and flaking away, it has regained
that quiet dignity, stoically keeping watch over the
Graveyard of the Atlantic." |
|
In
1999 the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse,
weighing about 3000 tons, was physically
uprooted and moved
more than half a mile. (For
more history on why the
lighthouse was moved, visit the lighthouse
page at our sister site, www.CarolinaOuterBanks.com) It
still commands the same awe it
has always deserved, but the atmosphere
surrounding it is quite different.
It is a major attraction, and it's
being treated like one. Park personnel
see that everyone stays in line
and follows the rules, like waiting
in line at a theme park to ride
the "Super Duper Thriller".
 Thirty
years ago things were far more casual.
There were no park personnel to supervise
visitors. It was each curious visitor
for himself. The 1973 photo at right
shows a large
crowd around the gallery. The
photo at left, also taken in 1973,
shows the old location, just 600
feet away from the foundation remains
of the 1803 lighthouse that preceded
the current structure. SInce this old
foundation disappeared in a storm
in 1980, and the lighthouse was moved
in 1999, the same photo taken today
would show nothing but sand and sky. |
 |
 NOAA
photo (above)
 |
The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) took aerial
photos of the entire Outer Banks,
including all the lighthouses,
in September, 2003, just after
Hurricane Isabel. You will notice
in these photos several areas of
standing water left after the hurricane.
Though these photos have been reduced
somewhat in size, they are still
quite large. In all four images,
east is to the left.
Photos Aerial
One, and Aerial
Two are detailed views of the
new lighthouse site. Aerial
Three includes the old lighthouse
location next to the beach so the
relationship can be seen. And as
a special treat, Aerial
Four is the same photo with the
lighthouse and Keepers Quarters buildings
digitally placed back where they
originally were (just for old times
sake). |
 |
The
panoramic photo above. taken about
a month after the aerial photos,
is looking
east from the lighthouse, and
shows the path taken by the lighthouse
when it was moved. The patch of
sand next to the ocean (top center
in the photo) is the old location
of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.
Left is another photo looking east
with Cape Hatteras Lighthouse casting
its shadowy
finger toward its old home.  Below
right is a telephoto view from
the lighthouse gallery, showing
the old
lighthouse location next to
the beach. The whitish oval ring,
left of center, is where the lighthouse
stood. The protective dunes were
almost completely washed away by
Isabel, and the beach was seriously
eroded farther along the old groin. |
 The
panoramic photo at right shows
the view
north from the lighthouse at
its new location. Looking south
from the gallery (photo below)
affords a great view
of Cape Point. Here too, the
dunes were washed completely away
by the fury of Hurricane Isabel.
In fact, there are no dunes left
at all between the lighthouse and
Cape Point. Two views looking north
from Cape Point (below center & right)
also show a communications tower
south of the lighthouse. |
 |
The
new site is arranged identically
to the original location (top left
photo). The duplex Assistant Keeper's
Quarters serves as a visitor center
and museum. The brick main
Keeper's Quarters is not open to the
public. The lower left photo shows
the lighthouse view from the west
end of the duplex Keeper's Quarters.
The entrance to the lighthouse
base gives the illusion that the
lighthouse
is not really so tall after all.
But once you see the entrance compared
to a person, the true grand scale
of the door, the base, and the lighthouse
itself is suddenly quite evident
(upper right). |
click thumbnails for
a larger view  |
|
|
 
The
best view in town is, of course,
from the gallery
atop Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.
And on an especially clear day,
with the light
from the west, if you look southeast very carefully
out over the ocean,
you might see a faint glimmer
on the horizon. And if you remembered
your binoculars, you may be able
to tell that the teeny tiny shimmering
you can almost see is
the Diamond
Shoals Light Tower, 13 miles
away! It and the Frying Pan Shoals tower both are in deplorable condition and scheduled
for demolition by 2004, but funding is still pending. |
 |
There's more to see at Cape Hatteras. Go inside the Keeper's Quarters, and inside the lighthouse itself on page two. |
| Continue to
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse - Page Two > |
Cape
Hatteras
Lighthouse |
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