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Lighthouse History
Built: 1st lighthouse 1736
/ 2nd lighthouse 1742 / 3rd lighthouse 1773 & 1866 Reconstruction to
the existing Tower
2nd addition lighthouse
built in 1822
Type: 1st lighthouse Wooden
Structure / 2ndlighthouse Stone and Wood / 3rd lighthouse Brick Tower
Height: 1st lighthouse 90
feet / 2nd lighthouse 94 feet w/30 foot flagpole / 3rd lighthouse 100 feet
& 1866 154 feet
2nd addition lighthouse
50 feet
Status: 1st & 2nd lighthouse
Non Active / 3rd lighthouse Active
Location: Mouth of the Savannah
River
Deactivated: 1st & 2nd
lighthouse Destroyed by storm / 3rd lighthouse partial destroyed in the
Civil War
Lens: 3rd lighthouse Candles
w/reflectors then upgraded to Whale Oil Lamps - 1857 Second Order Fresnel
- 1866 First Order Fresnel
Keepers:
Notes: Located at the mouth
of the Savannah River, the Tybee Island Lighthouse was the first on Georgia's
coast. Tybee Island Lighthouse
Erected in 1736 and standing
only 90 feet high, this structure served as a day mark for ships coming
into the port of Savannah. It was, unfortunately, built too close to shore
and was toppled by a severe storm in 1741. Rebuilt in 1742 again too close
to the sea, this second structure suffered the same fate. A third tower,
100 feet high and constructed of brick, was completed in 1773 at a site
farther back from the ocean. In 1790 the Tybee Lighthouse joined the federally
operated U.S. Lighthouse Establishment. Using large candles with large
metal discs as an illuminate for the lantern room, Tybee changed its status
from day mark to lighthouse.
A fifty-foot tower was built
seaward of the lighthouse in 1822, and an array of lamps in the shorter
tower paired with those in the main tower functioned as a range light.
As American lighthouses adopted the use of Fresnel lenses, the Tybee Lighthouse
received a second-order lens in 1857, while the front light was given a
fourth-order lens. Now, instead of having to tend multiple lamps, the keepers
were responsible for just a single lamp in each tower. The efficient Fresnel
lens, with the single lamp at its center, greatly increased the range of
the lights.
In 1861 during the War Between
the States, the Confederate forces abandoned Tybee Island for the safer
confines of Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Island, roughly two miles upriver.
Before retreating, the troops set fire to the lighthouse, burning the wooden
stairs and landings. Union soldiers occupied Tybee Island and bombarded
Fort Pulaski with newly developed rifled Parrot guns, prompting the surrender
of the fort in just thirty hours.
After the Civil War, the
Lighthouse Establishment began work on rebuilding the Tybee Light. The
lower sixty feet of the old lighthouse was still intact, and it was decided
to add to the existing structure instead of starting from the ground up.
The new lighthouse was to be a first order station, consisting of masonry
and metal only and was completely fireproof. This is the lighthouse that
stands today.
In 1866, after the end of
the war, a reconstruction crew began work on the lighthouse. Work was progressing
well until federal troops arrived on the island bringing with them cholera.
The foreman and four workers died from the disease, prompting the remaining
workers to flee the site. A replacement crew was brought in to complete
the work. Only the bottom sixty feet of the 1773 tower was salvageable,
and on this base an additional 94 feet of tower was added, bringing the
total height to 154 feet. A new, fireproof cast-iron staircase with 178
treads formed the spine of the lighthouse, and a first-order Fresnel lens
was placed in the lantern room. The all-white structure displayed its fixed
white light for the first time on October 1, 1867.
In 1886, an earthquake,
a rare occurrence for the east coast, struck the area. The earthquake of
last August extended the cracks that have been observed in this tower for
several years and made some new ones, but not to any dangerous extent.
The lens was displaced and the attachments to its upper ring were broken.
The damage was repaired without delay. The entrance for which the Tybee
lights made a range is gradually moving to the southward and in January
last it became necessary to move the front beacon 98 feet in that direction.
Electricity reached the
lighthouse in 1933, replacing kerosene as the light source. The staff at
the lighthouse was reduced to just one keeper, George Jackson, who served
until his death in 1947. The Coast Guard, who took control of the tower
in 1939, occupied the station buildings until 1987, when they moved to
a modern facility on Cockspur Island. The lighthouse is still active, illuminating
the skies above Tybee Island nightly with its first-order lens.
In 1998, the Tybee Island
Lighthouse underwent a major restoration. |