Hog Island Light

Infobox_Lighthouse


caption = Undated photograph of Hog Island Light (1896 tower) (USCG)
location = Hog Island SE of Exmore, Virginia
coordinates = coord|37.394|N|75.701|W|region:US_type:landmark (approx.)
yearlit = 1853 (first)
1896 (second)
automated =
yeardeactivated = 1948
foundation =
construction = stone (first)
steel (second)
shape = conical (first)
skeletal (second)
height =
lens =
range =
characteristic = The Hog Island Light was a lighthouse roughly marking its eponymous island, and thus the north side of the Great Machipongo Inlet on the Virginia coast.

History

There have been two lights at this location, a barrier island south east of Exmore, Virginia. The first light was erected in 1853 and consisted of a stone tower with a keeper's dwelling adjacent to it. It was ostensibly equipped with a first-order fresnel lens, though a report in 1870 assigned it a fourth order lens.

Erosion of the island eventually endangered the first light, and in 1896 a steel skeletal tower was erected to replace it. The island continued to shift and in 1948 it was demolished, as the waves threatened to bring it down. The first order lens was first displayed at the Newport News Mariners Museum; in 2004 it was moved to an enclosed pavilion on the Portsmouth, Virginia waterfront..

References

*cite web
url = http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/WEBLIGHTHOUSES/LHVA.html
title = Virginia Light Stations
publisher = United States Coast Guard
accessdate = 2008-03-28