New Cape Henry Lighthouse and Old Cape Henry minus its lantern room Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

A similar warning was repeated each of the following years until Congress finally granted an appropriation of $75,000 in June of 1878 to replace the colonial Cape Henry Lighthouse. With funds finally in hand, the Lighthouse Board proved itself more than eager to begin the project. In its 1879 annual report, the board enthusiastically reported: "drawings and specifications for a new 1st-order light house are now completed and ready for distribution to bidders." Negotiations for six acres of land were also underway, and the search was on for contractors to complete the metal work. As this new light was to be composed of enormous cast-iron plates bolted together, this was a tall order indeed (the tallest cast-iron, fully enclosed lighthouse in the United States, in fact). The board was emphatic that "no unnecessary delay will be made in the prosecution of this important work," and they requested $25,000 more in funds to move the project along.

In 1880 the Lighthouse Board insisted that steady progress was being made, in spite of delays in the metal work and land negotiations: "...about one third of the wrought iron work has been completed. The base section, comprising about 16 feet in height of the tower, is nearly completed." An 1880 photograph shows construction materials strewn around a base section just starting to emerge from the sand, with the reliable old stone tower standing staunchly in the background.

A pier was completed near the construction site in August of 1880, and soon thereafter "the broken stone for concrete, the hoisting-engines and steam concrete mixer, 600 barrels of imperial Portland cement, brick for the fog signal building and the fog siren machinery, with the exception of the boilers, were landed.” After enduring these tons of bricks and machines, the pier proved too fragile for a load of tower ironwork. The bridge leading from the loading dock to the shore broke under the strain of a fully loaded car. The remainder of the off-loaded ironwork was transported to Norfolk by a hastily procured schooner and placed in storage. Just hours after the load was removed, the pier collapsed entirely.

The failure was not totally the fault of the pier-builder; examination of the wood revealed that a boring worm had devoured much of the structure, weakening it considerably. The Lighthouse Board decided that in the future scows (flat bottomed freight boats) would be used to land construction materials at the site.

When work was suspended for the winter in November of 1880, a brick fog signal building, covered by a corrugated iron roof, had been completed, and one worker remained behind in this shelter to watch over the property and supplies. Work resumed the next spring on May 30th, 1881, and progressed smoothly from this point forward. By mid June the extensive preparatory work had been completed; this included "putting hoisting engines in order, erecting derricks and preparing cars for hauling." The remaining metal plates, their completion long delayed by inept contractors, were finally ready to be shipped from their foundries, and a first-order Fresnel lens was awaiting shipment from the Staten Island depot to Virginia.

New and Old Cape Henry Lighthouses in 1905 Photograph courtesy Library of Congress

On December 14, 1881, the light source was removed from the original Cape Henry Lighthouse and placed in the newly constructed iron tower. Keeper Jay D. Edwards transferred his attention to the iron structure the following day, when the new light, with a focal plane of 157 feet and a range of 18 ¾ miles, was exhibited for the first time. In one day, the old tower transitioned from a lighthouse to an historic landmark.

The two towers continue to stand side-by-side on the southerly Cape of Chesapeake Bay, one of the most important shipping channels in the nation. The vital ports of Norfolk, Newport News, Baltimore and Washington are all accessed through the Chesapeake, and the Cape Henry lighthouses have provided over two hundred years of uninterrupted aid to navigation.

The New Cape Henry Lighthouse is adorned with one of the most distinctive daymarks to be found on a lighthouse anywhere in the world. Its stark octagonal tower alternates between white and black on its various faces, and midway up this pattern is offset by one face, producing a checkerboard-like effect. The unique coloring distinguishes Cape Henry from the all-white tower of Cape Charles to the North and the red brick tower at Currituck Beach to the South.

During the twentieth century the Cape Henry Lighthouse saw many technological upgrades; these have accumulated to make it the very modern aid to navigation station that it is today. In 1912 an incandescent oil-vapor lamp replaced a lamp with five concentric oil-burning wicks. The light’s signature was originally fixed white with a red sector covering "the shoals outside of Cape Charles and the Middle Ground that extend from the entrance into the Chesapeake Bay." In 1922, when the station was converted to electricity, the signature was changed to a distinctive group-flashing light.

In times of fog, two machine-operated bells struck simultaneously every five seconds accompanied the operation of the light. Later, a fog signal sounded by compressed air was installed. This signal was synchronized with a radio beacon, so that approaching vessels could ascertain their distance from shore even if they couldn’t see the light. The radio was installed in 1929, making Cape Henry the second lighthouse in the United States to deploy such a device. The Cape Henry station was also home to a fog signal testing laboratory, where investigations were conducted for the benefit of the entire Lighthouse Service. Indeed the station has been of great scientific importance, as experiments in radar and wind-generated electricity were also conducted there. In 1996, Cape Henry leaped into the twenty first century when a Differential Global Positioning System was installed.

Since 1984, the Cape Henry light has been fully automated, rendering the presence of a keeper unnecessary. Budget restrictions have forced the U.S. Coast Guard to examine the "prohibitive costs of maintaining the historical integrity of the structure." The Coast Guard is responsible for 50,000 aids to navigation, such as lighted buoys; only about 500 of these are lighthouses. In a memo form the late 1980s, the commander of the 5th Coast Guard District defended his decision to continue maintenance of the New Cape Henry Lighthouse: "You...recommended that we excess the structure and... build a skeleton tower for the required optic. … As the program manager, it is my decision to retain this lighthouse as one of the major landfall aids for the Chesapeake Bay entrance. A skeleton tower would not present the same visual daymark as the current 165-foot tower."

Some within the Coast Guard proposed demolishing the tower, hoping that a historical society would then step in to save the lighthouse. Even without the threat of demolition, it seems this goal just might be achieved. In 2005, Virginia’s most experienced historic preservation organization, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA), requested control of the lighthouse from the Coast Guard. APVA already controls the old lighthouse just 100 yards away, and if successful in obtaining the new one, they plan to open the iron tower for climbing, and the associated two keeper’s quarters for tours. Cape Henry would certainly become one of the top lighthouse destinations if this occurs.

Photo Gallery: 1 2 3

References:

1. “Cape Henry Lighthouse, the First Lighthouse Built by the Federal Government,” Lighthouse Service Bulletin, May 1937.
2. Bay Beacons, Linda Turbyville, 1995.
3. “The Two Towers of Cape Henry,” Charles E. Hatch, Jr., The Keeper’s Log, Summer 1985.
4. The Historic Lighthouse Preservation Handbook, National Park Service.