History
Wood Island Light was constructed in 1808 under the orders of President Thomas Jefferson. The original tower was an octagonal wooden structure that had rotted out by the 1830s. In 1839 a granite tower was erected replacing the original wood structure. The current tower was constructed in 1858 as a renovation of the 1839 tower to allow for the installation of a 4th order Fresnel lens. Also built in 1858 were the current keepers dwellings which are still standing.
In 1960s the original lantern room was removed and an aerobeacon was installed instead. This however was deemed unsightly by locals and when the lighthouse was automated in 1986 a new lantern room was fabricated and installed on the lighthouse along with the current VRB-25 beacon. Currently the United States Coast Guard maintains the active beacon of the lighthouse, however The Friends of Wood Island Light non-profit organization has assisted the Coast Guard by maintaining and restoring parts of the lighthouse and keepers dwellings which they now own.
Read more about this topic: Wood Island Light
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The view of Jerusalem is the history of the world; it is more, it is the history of earth and of heaven.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Most events recorded in history are more remarkable than important, like eclipses of the sun and moon, by which all are attracted, but whose effects no one takes the trouble to calculate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)