The original Dry Tortugas lighthouse, built in 1826 at a height of 65-feet, was located a short distance from this one here at Garden Key, FL. Garden Key is 70-miles out in the Gulf of Mexico, southwest of Key West, FL. The Tortugas was called "dry" because there was no fresh water available.
Fort Jefferson was constructed around the original light and continued for 30-years. Walls of the fort are 45-feet high and 8-feet thick. The fort covers approximately 18 acres which is most of the island. Construction work was never fully completed before the fort's usefulness became a thing of the past.
In the 1830s, lighthouse officials were receiving an endless stream of complaints about the effectiveness of the Garden Key Light. Mariners protested they could only see the light when they were almost ashore. In 1847 an American Coast Pilot called the Garden Key beacon, "without a doubt the worst light in the world." In 1873 a hurricane badly damaged the lighthouse. Although repaired, it was later torn down and an iron structure built nearby on top of the fort walls in 1876. (Pictured above).
This Lighthouse was replaced with a taller 150-foot tower on Loggerhead Key in 1858, and it officially took the name of its predecessor: Dry Tortugas Light. (See that lighthouse in my next post.)
The Garden Key structure received a fourth-order lens and became Tortugas Harbor Light. The Tortugas Harbor Light continued serving as an aid to navigation until 1912 when a fire in the fort's barracks also destroyed the keeper's house. The light was decommissioned in 1921 .
At the time of my visit here in 2001, the lighthouse remained inactive. This lighthouse and Fort Jefferson are part of The Dry Torugas National Park.
2 comments:
A shame you could not get closer. It looks like an interesting structure.
Hi Richard;
The picture of the Fort with the lighthouse on top was taken as I was approaching the Fort via the boat. The picture of the lighthouse was taken after I got inside the Fort. Somewhere in my pictures, I have one taken of the lighthouse from on top of the roof, but could not locate it for this blog post.
Post a Comment