Baltimore Harbor Light

The Baltimore Harbor Light, officially Baltimore Light and historically Baltimore Harbor Lighthouse is a privately owned caisson lighthouse in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.[2][3][4] First lit in 1908, it sits at the mouth of the Magothy River, marking the channel which leads northwest to the opening of the Patapsco River, which then leads into the Baltimore harbor. The light is located adjacent to the mouth of the Magothy River. At the time of its construction, it was the world's tallest caisson lighthouse due to the deep sediment of its location. It was the world's first nuclear powered lighthouse for a brief time in the 1960s.

Baltimore Harbor Light
Baltimore Light being fitted with a radioisotope thermoelectric generator on May 20, 1964, making it the first and only nuclear-powered lighthouse in the United States. In the background is the NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered merchant vessel.
LocationEntrance to the Magothy River, Chesapeake Bay, Maryland
Coordinates39.05919°N 76.399°W / 39.05919; -76.399
Tower
FoundationPneumatic caisson sunk into seabed
ConstructionBrick
Automated1964
ShapeOctagonal
MarkingsWhite with brown base
HeritageNational Register of Historic Places listed place Edit this on Wikidata
Fog signalnone
Light
First lit1908
Focal height52 ft (16 m)
LensFifth order Fresnel lens
RangeWhite 7 nautical miles (13 km; 8.1 mi)
Red 5 nautical miles (9.3 km; 5.8 mi)
Characteristic
Flashing white 2.5 sec, with one red sector
Baltimore Light Station
Nearest cityGibson Island, Maryland
Arealess than one acre
Built1908
Built byFlaherty, William H.; Lande, Frederick Martin, et al
MPSLight Stations of the United States MPS
NRHP reference No.02001417[1]
Added to NRHPDecember 2, 2002

History

Although a lighthouse had been requested at the site since 1890, it was not until 1904 that construction actually began. In October of that year a violent storm struck the construction site, upturning the caisson and sending it to the bottom of the Bay. The contractor defaulted on the work, and it was not until late in 1905 that construction could resume. The lens was finally installed and the light lit in 1908. It was the last lighthouse to be constructed on the Chesapeake.[4]

In May 1964, the Baltimore Light became the world's first, and only American lighthouse, powered by nuclear power, as a test of the SNAP-7B 60 Watt radioisotope thermoelectric generator. One year later the RTG was removed and a conventional electric generator was installed.[5] Currently the lighthouse is solar-powered.

The structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Baltimore Light Station on December 2, 2002.[1]

In June 2006, Baltimore Light was sold at auction to private owners by the General Services Administration for $260,000; the U.S. Coast Guard maintains rights to operate a light on the structure.[6] The new owner, BHL, LLC of Annapolis, was a partnership of private citizens, 4 couples.[7] The terms of sale dictate that the Coast Guard be granted access to the lighthouse for occasional checkups on the still-active light.[7] BHL created a web site, which went offline in the summer of 2023, the current status of the lighthouse is unknown.

Notes
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Maryland" (PDF). United States Coast Guard Historian's Office.
  3. Light List, Volume II, Atlantic Coast, Shrewsbury River, New Jersey to Little River, South Carolina (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard. 2012. p. 76.
  4. Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of the United States: Maryland". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
  5. "Coast Guard Lighthouses". Archived from the original on 2008-10-08.
  6. Ralph E. Eshelman (March 1996). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Baltimore Light Station" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
  7. "Baltimore Lighthouse". Lighthouse Friends. Retrieved 2023-01-01.

References

Media related to Baltimore Harbor Light at Wikimedia Commons

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