You can stand on Cape Point at Hatteras and look out into the Atlantic and watch two oceans currents come together in an astonishing display of nature's fury. There the northbound Gulf Stream and the cold waters of the Labrador Current coming down from Canada's Newfoundland run head-on into each other, tossing salt spray a hundred feet into the air and dropping sand and shells and sea life at the point of impact. Thus is formed Diamond Shoals, its shifting sand bars pushing seaward to form the headstone for what mariners know as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic.''
Cape Lookout Lighthouse
Bodie Island Lighthouse
Since the 16th century more than a thousand ships and countless mariners have been lost in the waters off the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Mariners still dread the trinity of capes that characterize North Carolina's coast: Cape Fear, Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout. The capes arc far into the Atlantic, with submerged shoals extending even further. Geography combines with weather to create perilous voyages for mariners.
Currituck Beach Lighthouse
As long as seafaring men have traversed the oceans of the world, lighthouses have shown them the way. They protect them from hands that reach up from sea and attempt to pull them down into the dark and icy depths. They are the connecting link to the distant shores they called home.
Six lighthouses stand sentinal along the North Carolina shore, but for nearly two centuries after North Carolina's settlement, the coast went unprotected. Hundreds of ships met their fate in the stormy shallow waters, and one of the first congressional acts passed by America's fledgling government was lighting the coastline.
The first structure completed in 1795 was the Bald Head Lighthouse at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. The first Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was completed in 1802. The Ocracoke Lighthouse came next in 1823. Still operating today, it holds the distinction along with "Old Baldy" as one of the oldest continually operating lighthouses in the United States.
After the Civil War, the government realized that more and better lighthouses were needed along the Carolina coast. The Hatteras Light, which was of vital importance to mariners, was too short, too faint, and dangerously unstable. In addition, Congress established the Lighthouse Board to oversee construction of five new lighthouses along the coast placed at 40-mile intervals.
The Cape Lookout Lighthouse was the first of these post-war structures to be completed. At 150 feet, it served as the model for the future lighthouses at Hatteras, Bodie Island and Currituck Beach.
In 1870, the original Cape Hatteras lighthouse as replaced by the current structure. At 208 feet, the majestic candy-striped lighthouse is the tallest in the nation, as well as the most recognizable and photographed.
The 150-foot Bodie Island Lighthouse was constructed in 1872. Originally located on the north shore of Oregon Inlet, the lighthouse is now two miles north of the inlet, a prime example of the always shifting sands of the Outer Banks.
At Corolla, the Currituck Beach Lighthouse was the last of the five to be built. Constructed in 1893, the 150-foot structure was intentionally left in its natural "unpainted" state. Each of the new lighthouses was painted in a distinctive manner to make them recognizable during daylight hours.
Perhaps most interesting is how these monolithic structures were constructed in the soft barrier island sand. The foundations were constructed of two courses of six-by-twelve timbers laid in an octagonal fashion in a deep pit. Once the timbers were in place, the hole was allowed to fill with sea water, a technique which has preserved the beams for over a century. Then, a granite cap was laid on top of the foundation, and the circular tower constructed brick by brick.
The lights were originally lit with oil lanterns, which required the keeper to make several trips a day to the summit with oil to refill. The light was magnified with a high-power Fresnel Lens mounted atop a rotating base flashing at recognizable intervals, which could be seen up to 50 miles away, even during adverse weather. The light keepers and his families were housed on the site, and their days at these remote, barren outposts were filled with routine chores such as cleaning the glass and lens, repairing storm damage, and making detailed weather reports. Today, the lightkeepers are gone, and the lighthouses are automated to illuminate from dusk to dawn.
Ocracoke Lighthouse
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
