Christine ~ Lighthouses of the Outer Banks

Rising 156 feet the Bodie Island Lighthouse was built in 1872. The first Bodie Island Lighthouse was built in 1837 and was 54 feet tall. Because of sand that was too soft, the base too unstable it started sinking and listing. A second light house was built farther south and was 90 feet tall. During the Civil War Confederate soldiers removed the lens so Union troops wouldn’t be able to navigate along their shores and wage an attack.

The current lighthouse cost 140,000 dollars and took fifteen months to build. This lighthouses located inland in order to give it a secure base but the light can still be seen 20 miles at sea.

Bodie Island Light Station

At 210 feet the Cape Hatteras Light Station is the largest brick lighthouse in North America. The lighthouse was built in 1870 at a cost of 167,000 dollars. In 1999 the structure was moved to safer ground 1500 feet inland at a cost of over 2 million dollars. The building is the tallest masonry structure ever moved, 200 feet tall and weighing 5 thousand tons.

Cape Hatteras Light Station

The Ocracoke Lighthouse is the oldest, active lighthouse in North Carolina. The original lighthouse was a wooden 55 foot high structure. It was struck by lightning 1818 and burned to the ground. The current lighthouse was built in 1823 and was controlled by both Union and Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. The light now functions like a street lamp, turning on at night off in the morning.