It was automated in the 1950s but is no longer used as an aid to navigation. The west end light was replaced by the current east end light in 1885, which is a 56-foot-tall cylindrical iron tower with a brick lining, bolted to a concrete foundation. Records indicate that as many as 12,000 vessels took refuge at the breakwater each year from 1872-75. established a station at the exchange.Īfter several rebuilds due to storm damage, the exchange was moved to land in the area around the Cape Henlopen Point and Lewes. Eventually, the Western Union Telegraph Co. The reporting station provided advance notice to the port of Philadelphia about ships’ arrivals and also advised area lifesaving stations about the locations of shipwrecks.Ĭontact with ships heading up the Delaware Bay to Philadelphia was made by workers in boats who delivered messages back and forth between ships and the reporting station. The lighthouse was turned over to the Philadelphia Maritime Exchange, which had established a reporting station on the breakwater dating back to 1875. Some ruins of its stone foundations are visible along the breakwater. The lighthouse was in operation until 1903 and was removed in the 1950s. The west end lighthouse was built in 1849, replacing a light placed atop a house on the breakwater built for the superintendent in charge of construction. A stone structure with a length of 1,400 feet was built west of the breakwater to serve as an icebreaker.Īlmost lost to history was the addition of a 1,700-foot-long iron-rail pier constructed from what is now Cape Henlopen State Park to the breakwater lighthouse to provide direct access to ships in the harbor. When finished in 1869, the $2.1 million breakwater was 2,586 feet in length. More than 835,000 tons of stone quarried from Delaware and Pennsylvania was shipped to Lewes and dumped off ships to build up the breakwater. With none of the heavy equipment used today, construction of the breakwater was a major undertaking in 1829. During storms, it was not usual to see hundreds of ships anchored in the Harbor of Refuge created by the breakwaters, which is designated as a national historical area. Army Corps of Engineers to create a safe harbor for ships during inclement weather. The Delaware Breakwater was the third of its kind built in the world, the second-longest in the world and the only one in the Western Hemisphere. The first building funds were appropriated during the John Quincy Adams administration. Combined, the two are more than 2 miles long and cost nearly $90 million in today's dollars. Known today as the inner and outer walls, the breakwaters were considered wonders of engineering and construction at the time. Today, as we watch the Cape May-Lewes Ferry cross the bay and view oil tankers anchored off in the distance, we can't fathom the sight of hundreds of large sailboats – and later, steam-powered ships – plying the bay off the Lewes coast. Delaware Bay was an important route for access to the Port of Philadelphia, one of the key cities in the nation during the 1800s. The history is fascinating because it recalls a time when seafaring vessels were the only means to transport goods along the East Coast. You can't begin to delve into the history of the lighthouses without first highlighting their foundations – the two Delaware Bay stone breakwaters constructed to create a safe harbor for ships. Most of us know at least a little bit about the history of the two most recognizable Cape Region landmarks: the Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse (white one) and the Delaware Breakwater East End Lighthouse (red one).īut do you know anything about what they are built on?
This place was considered an engineering marvel in its time.
Yet, the vast majority of people have never been to it or touched it they’ve only seen it from afar. There is a place in the Cape Region that has played a significant role in our maritime history, dating back nearly 200 years.
0 kommentar(er)
