Crypto lighthouses: Crypto Lighthouse 05 - The Cape Florida Lighthouse, Florida, US
The Cape Florida Lighthouse
Location: Cape Florida, Key Biscayne, Florida, United States Coordinates: 25°39'59.72"N 80°09'21.47"W
Tower Constructed: 1825 (first) Foundation: brick on coral reef Construction: brick tower Automated: 1978 Height: 95 feet (29 m) Shape: tapered cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern Markings: white tower, black lantern Operator: State of Florida
Light First lit: 1847 (current) Deactivated: (1878–1978) and (1990–1996) Focal height: 100 feet (30 m)
Lens: 1846: 17 Argand lamps with 21-in reflectors, 1855: Second-order Fresnel lens, 1996: 300 mm lens Characteristic: Fl W 6s.
The Cape Florida Light is a lighthouse on Cape Florida at the south end of Key Biscayne in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Constructed in 1825, it guided mariners off the Florida Reef, which starts near Key Biscayne and extends southward a few miles offshore of the Florida Keys. It was operated by staff, with interruptions, until 1878, when it was replaced by the Fowey Rocks lighthouse. The lighthouse was put back into use in 1978 by the U.S. Coast Guard to mark the Florida Channel, the deepest natural channel into Biscayne Bay. They decommissioned it in 1990.
Within the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park since 1966, the lighthouse was relit in 1996. It is owned and operated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
The construction contract called for a 65-foot-tall (20 m) tower with walls of solid brick, five feet thick at the bottom, tapering to two feet thick at the top. It was later found that the contractor had scrimped on materials and built hollow walls. In 1835 a major hurricane struck the island, damaging the lighthouse and the keeper's house, and flooding the island under three feet of water.
In 1846 a contract was let to rebuild the lighthouse and the keeper's dwelling. The contractor was permitted to reuse the old bricks from the original tower and house. The lighthouse was completed and re-lit in April, 1847. It was equipped with 17 Argand lamps, each with 21-inch (530 mm) reflectors.
In an 1855 renovation, the tower was raised to 95 feet (29 m), to extend the reach of the light beyond the off-shore reefs. That year the original lamp and lens system was replaced by a second-order. The heightened tower, with its new, more powerful light, was re-lit in March 1856.
Confederate sympathizers destroyed the lighthouse lamp and lens in 1861 during the American Civil War. The light was repaired in 1866.