Hog Island Light
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Hog Island Light | |
|---|---|
 Undated photograph of Hog Island Light (1896 tower) (USCG) |
|
| Location: | Hog Island SE of Exmore, Virginia |
| Coordinates WGS-84 (GPS) |
(approx.) |
| Year first lit: | 1853 (first) 1896 (second) |
| Deactivated: | 1948 |
| Construction: | stone (first) steel (second) |
| Tower shape: | conical (first) skeletal (second) |
The Hog Island Light was a lighthouse roughly marking its eponymous island, and thus the north side of the Great Machipongo Inlet on the Virginia coast.
[edit] History
There have been two lights at this location, a barrier island south east of Exmore, Virginia. The first light was erected in 1853 and consisted of a stone tower with a keeper's dwelling adjacent to it. It was ostensibly equipped with a first-order fresnel lens, though a report in 1870 assigned it a fourth order lens.
Erosion of the island eventually endangered the first light, and in 1896 a steel skeletal tower was erected to replace it. The island continued to shift and in 1948 it was demolished, as the waves threatened to bring it down. The first order lens was first displayed at the Newport News Mariners Museum; in 2004 it was moved to an enclosed pavilion on the Portsmouth, Virginia waterfront.
[edit] References
- Virginia Light Stations. United States Coast Guard. Retrieved on 2008-03-28.
