While visiting numerous lighthouses throughout the U.S. and
Canada, I saw many different styles of lighthouses. Some were brick and mortar,
some wood, some stone, and a few were metal. I think most everyone would agree that
not all lighthouses are beautiful. Evidence of this is in some of the photos I’ve
taken and previously posted to this blog. Regardless, lighthouses were built to
aid mariners in ship navigation and not necessarily to add beauty to the local
landscape. The following lighthouses represent two different styles, different materials, and
depending on the observer, may see them as beautiful. Feel free to click on the pictures for an enlarged view.
The Sanibel Island Lighthouse in FL is an example of a pyramidal skeletal tower. Made of metal these type of towers could be built for roughly half the cost of a stone or brick tower of the same height. If needed, it was possible to disassemble and move the tower. Construction of the Sanibel Lighthouse cost $50,000 and was completed in 1884. Its 98-feet tower consists of four iron legs arranged in a pyramidal style around a cylindrical central column and topped by the lantern room. Originally, the lantern room was fitted with a third-order Fresnel lens. The center column on this lighthouse stops about twenty feet from the ground, therefore access must be by an external staircase.
The Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse, FL was built in 1887 at a cost of approximately $200,000. This is an example of a brick and mortar tower. The lantern room was originally fitted with a first-order Fresnel lens. Its brick foundation extends to a depth of twelve-feet below ground to support the 175-feet double wall tower. Over one million bricks were used to construct this lighthouse. It is the second tallest brick lighthouse in the U.S. and its circular metal stairway consists of 194 steps. At the time of my visit here in 2001, a portion of the tower was surrounded by scaffolding to enable maintenance.
(The tallest brick lighthouse is Cape Hatteras, NC.)
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