White Shoal Light (Virginia)

Infobox Lighthouse
name= White Shoal Light


caption = 1885 photograph of White Shoal Light (USCG)
location = James River, northwest of Newport News, Virginia
coordinates = coord|37.0218|N|76.5275|W|type:landmark
yearlit = 1855
automated =
yeardeactivated = 1935
foundation = screw-pile
construction = cast-iron/wood
shape = hexagonal house
height =
lens = fifth-order Fresnel lens
currentlens =
elevation = Focal plane - convert|0|ft|m
intensity =
range = convert|0|mi|km
characteristic =
admiralty =
NGA =
ARLHS =
USCG =

The White Shoal Light was a lighthouse located in the James River near Newport News, Virginia. It outlasted all other lighthouses in the James, finally succumbing to ice in the 1970s.

History

White Shoal sits in the center of the James just upstream of Newport News. A light was first lit here in 1855, replacing a daybeacon placed the previous year. Two other lights, those at Deepwater Shoals and Point of Shoals, were erected at the same time.

By 1869 the structure at White Shoal was leaning badly and was declared unsafe, being described by the Lighthouse Board as being "of the oldest and most inferior design [DeGast, p. 23] ". A new light was constructed in 1871 and given a fifth-order Fresnel lens. In spite of its exposed location it managed to survive until 1934 without serious incident. In that year, it was sold to a private individual and a new unmanned tower was erected a short distance upstream. The structure gradually decayed, but remained in place until the mid 1970s, when iceflows pushed the house off its foundation. At the time of its demise, White Shoal Light was the last surviving lighthouse on the James River, and one of only two privately-owned lighthouses along the Chesapeake Bay [DeGast, p. 23] .

The foundation of the lighthouse still survives, but is not lit.

References

* [http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/WEBLIGHTHOUSES/LHVA.html Virginia Light Stations] , from the United States Coast Guard website
* [http://www.cheslights.org/heritage/whiteshoal.htm White Shoal Light] , from the Chesapeake Chapter of the United States Lighthouse Society
*cite book
last= de Gast
first= Robert
title= The Lighthouses of the Chesapeake
year= 1973
publisher= Johns Hopkins University Press pp. 22-25