Battery Gladden Light

The Battery Gladden Light was a lighthouse in Mobile Bay which marked a turn in the old ship channel. It was deactivated in 1913 and no longer exists.

Battery Gladden Light
LocationMobile Bay
Coordinates30°40′3″N 88°1′22″W
Tower
Foundationiron screw-pile
Constructionwood frame
Shapesquare house with lantern on roof
Light
First lit1872
Deactivated1913
Focal height45 feet (14 m)[1]
Lenslens lantern[1]

History

Battery Gladden was constructed on an artificial island as part of the defenses set up in the Civil War.[2][3] Dredging operations after the war established a ship channel which ran towards the light and turned to the west just south of the island.[4] In order to direct ships through the channel a square screw-pile house was built in 1872 on the old fortification and equipped with a fourth order Fresnel lens.[2][3] Channel dredging continued and a new channel was dug to the west, bypassing the portion marked by this light, which was extinguished in 1913.[5] The house remained standing as a daymark, finally succumbing to the elements around 1950.[2][3]

References
  1. List of Lights and Fog Signals on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States. Government Printing Office. March 1, 1907. p. 234. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  2. "Lighthouses of Alabama". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  3. Harrison, Tim; Jones, Ray (1999). Lost Lighthouses: Stories and Images of America's Vanished Lighthouses. Globe Pequot. p. 101. ISBN 9780762704439. Retrieved 2014-01-25. Battery Gladden mobile.
  4. see for example on Chart 188: Mobile Bay (Map). US Coast and Geodetic Survey. 1877. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  5. Addenda to the Hydrographic Office Publication No. 64 of 1907. Government Printing Office. 1914. p. 23. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
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