The unmanned reef lights of the Florida Keys were navigational aids erected near the Florida Keys between 1921 and 1935.
The unmanned reef lights of the Florida Keys were navigational aids erected near the Florida Keys between 1921 and 1935.
The reef lights were intended to mark local hazards and did not need to be visible for as far as the reef lights that were erected near the Keys during the 19th century. [lower-alpha 1] By the time the lights in this list were erected, older lighthouses were being automated, and these new lights were designed to be automated from the start. The lights resembled the older reef lights in having a wrought iron skeletal pyramidal structure on a screw-pile foundation. They all originally had lanterns on their peaks, so that they looked like smaller versions of the older reef lights, but had no keeper's quarters. [2] [3]
The first two unmanned lights in the Florida Keys, the Molasses Reef Light and the Pacific Reef Light, were built as square pyramidal towers to the same plan in 1921. The Hen and Chickens Shoal Light was the smallest of these lights, and the only one built as a triangular pyramidal tower. It still exists, serving as a daymark. The lantern has been removed. A design for a standardized hexagonal pyramidal tower was developed in 1932 and used for the Smith Shoal and Tennessee Reef lights erected in 1933, and for the Cosgrove Shoal and Pulaski Shoal lights erected in 1935. [2] [3]
| Name | Tower shape | Height above water | Image | Original lens | Location | Year first lit | Original characteristic | Tower color | Water depth | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Molasses Reef Light | Square pyramid | 45 feet (14 m) |  | fourth order Fresnel lens | about 8 miles (13 km) southeast of Key Largo 25°22′N80°09′W / 25.367°N 80.150°W | 1921 | Flashing white | brown | 9 feet (2.7 m) | [4] [lower-alpha 2] |
| Pacific Reef Light | Square pyramid | 45 feet (14 m) |  | fourth order Fresnel lens | about 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast of Elliott Key 25°22′N80°09′W / 25.367°N 80.150°W | 1921 | Flashing white, 0.4 seconds | white | 7 feet (2.1 m) | [lower-alpha 3] |
| Hen and Chickens Shoal Light | Triangular pyramid | 35 feet (11 m) | range lens (300 mm) | 2 miles (3.2 km) southeast of Plantation Key 24°56′N80°33′W / 24.933°N 80.550°W | 1929 | Flashing red, 3 seconds | red | 19 feet (5.8 m) | [7] [lower-alpha 4] | |
| Smith Shoal Light | Hexagonal pyramid | 49 feet (15 m) | fourth order Fresnel lens | about 11 miles (18 km) north-northwest of Key West 24°43′N81°55′W / 24.717°N 81.917°W | 1933 | Flashing white, once a second | white | 20 feet (6.1 m) | [lower-alpha 5] | |
| Tennessee Reef Light | Hexagonal pyramid | 49 feet (15 m) |  | fourth order Fresnel lens | south of Long Key 24°45′N80°47′W / 24.750°N 80.783°W | 1933 | Flashing white, 0.3 seconds | black | 15 feet (4.6 m) | [lower-alpha 6] |
| Cosgrove Shoal Light | Hexagonal pyramid | 49 feet (15 m) | 200 mm | about 10 miles (16 km) west-southwest of Key West, south of the Marquesas Keys 24°27′28″N82°11′06″W / 24.45778°N 82.18500°W | 1935 | Flashing white: 4 flashes 0.4 seconds each, 3 eclipses 1.6 seconds each, 1 eclipse 5.6 seconds | red | 14 feet (4.3 m) | [12] | |
| Pulaski Shoal Light | Hexagonal pyramid | 49 feet (15 m) |  | 500 mm | about 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Key West, north of the Dry Tortugas | 1935 | Flashing white, flash 0.4 seconds eclipse 2.6 seconds | black | 15 feet (4.6 m) | [lower-alpha 7] |
Alligator Reef Light is located 4 nautical miles east of Indian Key, near the Matecumbe Keys of Florida in the United States, north of Alligator Reef itself. The station was established in 1873. It was automated in 1963 and was last operational in July, 2014, and is being replaced by a 16' steel structure with a less powerful light located adjacent to it. The structure is an iron pile skeleton with a platform. The light is 136 feet (41 m) above the water. It is a white octagonal pyramid skeleton framework on black pile foundation, enclosing a square dwelling and a stair-cylinder. The lantern is black. The original lens was a first order bivalve Fresnel lens. The light characteristic of the original light was: flashing white and red, every third flash red, from SW by W 1/2 W through southward to NE 1/8 E, and from NE by E 3/4 E through northward to SW 3/8 S; flashing red throughout the intervening sectors; interval between flashes 5 seconds. It had a nominal range of 14 nautical miles in the white sectors and 11 nautical miles in the red sectors. The new light has a range of approximately 7 nautical miles.
Fowey Rocks Light is located seven miles southeast of Cape Florida on Key Biscayne. The lighthouse was completed in 1878, replacing the Cape Florida Light. It was automated on May 7, 1975, and as of 2021 is still in operation. The structure is cast iron, with a screw-pile foundation, a platform and a skeletal tower. The light is 110 feet above the water. The tower framework is painted brown, while the dwelling and enclosed circular stair to the lantern is painted white. The original lens was a first-order drum Fresnel lens which stood about 12 feet (4 m) high and weighed about a ton (tonne). The light has a nominal range of 15 miles in the white sectors, and 10 miles in the red sectors.
Carysfort Reef Light is located east of Key Largo, Florida. The lighthouse has an iron-pile foundation with a platform, and a skeletal, octagonal, pyramidal tower, which is painted red. The light was 100 feet (30 m) above the water. It was the oldest functioning lighthouse of its type in the United States until it was decommissioned in 2015, having been completed in 1852. The light last installed was a xenon flashtube beacon. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The American Shoal Light is located east of the Saddlebunch Keys, just offshore from Sugarloaf Key, close to Looe Key, in Florida, United States. It was completed in 1880, and first lit on July 15, 1880. The structure was built to the same plan and dimensions as the Fowey Rocks lighthouse, completed in 1878.
The Dry Tortugas Light is a lighthouse located on Loggerhead Key, three miles west of Fort Jefferson, Florida. It was taken out of operation in 2015. It has also been called the Loggerhead Lighthouse. It has been said to be "a greater distance from the mainland than any other light in the world."
The Cape Canaveral Light is a historic lighthouse on the east coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The light was established in 1848 to warn ships of the dangerous shoals that lie off its coast. It is located inside the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and managed by the Space Launch Delta 45 of the U.S. Space Force with the assistance of the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Foundation. It is the only fully operational lighthouse owned by the United States Space Force.
The Dames Point Light marked an 8-foot-deep (2.4 m) shoal at a sharp bend in the St. Johns River in Florida that was a danger to ships heading to or from Jacksonville.
The Rebecca Shoal Light was located on a treacherous coral bank, Rebecca Shoal, 6.2 miles (10 km) west of the Marquesas Keys and 31 miles (50 km) east of the Dry Tortugas.
Thimble Shoal Light is a sparkplug lighthouse in the Virginia portion of Chesapeake Bay, north of the Hampton Roads channel. The third light at this location, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The White Shoal Light is a lighthouse located 20 miles (32 km) west of the Mackinac Bridge in Lake Michigan. It is an active aid to navigation. It is also the tallest lighthouse on the Great Lakes.
The Fort Ripley Shoal Light or Middle Ground Light was a lighthouse in the Charleston, South Carolina harbor approaches.
The Fort Sumter Range Lights are range lights to guide ships through the main channel of the Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The original front light was built at Fort Sumter and the original rear light was in the steeple of St. Philip's Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Both lights were lit from 1893 to 1915 to make range lights. Today the Fort Sumter Range is the main approach channel to Charleston Harbor.
The Florida Reef is the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States. It lies a few miles seaward of the Florida Keys, is about 4 miles wide and extends 270 km (170 mi) from Fowey Rocks just east of Soldier Key to just south of the Marquesas Keys. The barrier reef tract forms a great arc, concentric with the Florida Keys, with the northern end, in Biscayne National Park, oriented north-south and the western end, south of the Marquesas Keys, oriented east-west. The rest of the reef outside Biscayne National Park lies within John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Isolated coral patch reefs occur northward from Biscayne National Park as far north as Stuart, in Martin County. Coral reefs are also found in Dry Tortugas National Park west of the Marquesas Keys. There are more than 6,000 individual reefs in the system. The reefs are 5,000 to 7,000 years old, having developed since sea levels rose following the Wisconsinan glaciation.
Molasses Reef is a coral reef located within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It lies to the southeast of Key Largo, within the Key Largo Existing Management Area, which is immediately to the east of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. This reef is within a Sanctuary Preservation Area (SPA).
The Peshtigo Reef Light is a lighthouse in Marinette County, Wisconsin, United States, offshore in lower Green Bay. Constructed in 1936 to replace a lightship, it remains in service.
The Ship Shoal Light is a screw-pile lighthouse located in the Gulf of Mexico southwest of the Isles Dernieres off the coast of Louisiana. It is currently abandoned.
Chester Rock Light was a light in Chester, Connecticut on the Connecticut River. It was built in 1889 as part of a $15,000 appropriation by the United States Congress. The 21-foot tall wooden hexagonal pyramidal tower had a black lantern with a 6th order Fresnel lens. The light was first lit on July 1, 1889. The tower was replaced in 1912 by a skeleton tower that was subsequently modified in 1927. Records do not show the deactivation or destruction of the light, but it was believed to have been removed in the 1930s. In the 1990s, the Deep River Historical Society of Deep River, Connecticut wanted to build a replica of the structure for use as a daymark.
The Essex Reef Light or Essex Reef Post Light, also known as Hayden's Point Light, was a light in Essex, Connecticut on the Connecticut River. The 21-foot (6.4 m) wooden tower was erected in 1889 and replaced with a skeleton tower by 1919. The skeleton tower was further altered to an automatic gas light a few years prior to 1931. Its keeper, Gilbert Burnett "Bernie" Hayden served for 30 years. As of 2014, a 26-foot (7.9 m) skeleton tower serves as an active daymark and it has a green flash every 4 seconds.
