From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Dry
Tortugas Light is located on Loggerhead Key, three miles west of Fort Jefferson, Florida.
A lighthouse was established on Bush Key in 1825, and refitted with a new
lantern in 1846. Construction on a new lighthouse on Loggerhead Key began in
1856 and was completed in 1858. The Loggerhead Key lighthouse has a stone
foundation and a conical brick tower. The walls are six feet thick at the base
and taper to four feet thick at the top. The tower was painted black on the
upper part and white below (later unpainted on the upper part and white below).
A radio room is attached to the base of the tower. The original lens was a
first order Fresnel lens, which is now on display at the United States Coast Guard Aids to
Navigation School in Yorktown, Virginia. The light was automated in
1988.
The
Dry Tortugas lighthouse, along with the Garden Key lighthouse at Fort Jefferson,
were the only lights on the Gulf coast
that stayed in full operation throughout the American Civil War. The tower was damaged by a
hurricane in October 1873[3] and
plans were drawn up for a new tower. However, repairs to the tower were so
successful that the plans for a new tower were shelved. Its appearance and
striping is similar to the Hunting Island Light, though its construction
is different.
Beginning
with its electrification in 1931, it was the most powerful lighthouse in
America, with three million candela
