Lighthouses Short & Tall
Cape Charles Lighthouse
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Readers Guide
 
Refer to page 35 of Lighthouses Short and Tall for Cape Charles Lighthouse 

Here are some more of those architectural terms: Skeleton. Cylinder. Columns. Sockets. Struts. Tension rods. Frustum. Octagonal pyramid. Architrave. Octagonal gallery. Hoisting engine. Mast. Pulleys. Rigging. Look up those that are new to you.

Here also is a description of how they lifted the sections of the large lens to the top of the tower. The circular stairway in the central column was too narrow to carry the parts to the top.

Cape Charles Lighthouse
USLHB photo

Lighthouse Maps
Fifth Lighthouse District
Can you find Cape Charles Lighthouse on this map? (Although this is an 1881 map, this tower replaced an earlier tower in the same location.)  The light on Cape Charles guided ships into the Chesapeake Bay.  What light marked the southern side of the entrance?

5th Lighthouse District map
Click on map to view larger image

Source: 1881 Annual Report of the U.S. Light-House Board

Links
 

This Reader's Guide is intended to be used with Lighthouses Short and Tall, a book for readers 11 and up written by Mary Louise and Candace Clifford.  It is available from the publisher, Cypress Communications, by using their book order form.

For more information contact books@lighthousehistory.info