Screw-pile lighthouse
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Screw-pile lighthouses stand on piles that are screwed into sandy or muddy sea or river bottoms. The first screw-pile lighthouse was built by blind Irish engineer Alexander Mitchell. It was constructed in 1838 at the mouth of the Thames and was known as the Maplin Sands lighthouse.
In the United States, screw-pile lighthouses proliferated in the Chesapeake Bay due to its estuarial soft bottom. North Carolina's sounds and river entrances were also once home to many screw-pile lights. The characteristic design is a one and a half story hexagonal wooden building with dormers and a cupola light room.
[edit] Screw-pile reef lighthouses
Screw-pile lighthouses were also used in Florida, including on open reefs adjacent to the Florida Keys. Carysfort Reef lighthouse, four miles east of Key Largo, was built in 1852 and is the oldest screw-pile lighthouse still in service in the United States. The screw-pile lighthouses on the reefs in Florida are tall skeletal towers, with living and working quarters set high above the reach of storm waves.
[edit] References
Love, Dean (1982). Reef Lights, Key West, Florida: The Historic Key West Preservation Board. ISBN 0-943528-03-8.
