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White Shoal Light, Virginia: Difference between revisions

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''FOr the light in [[Lake Michigan]], see [[White Shoal Light (Michigan)]].
''For the light in [[Lake Michigan]], see [[White Shoal Light (Michigan)]].


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.
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.

Revision as of 18:34, 11 September 2007

White Shoal Light
1885 photograph of White Shoal Light (USCG)
Map
LocationJames River, northwest of Newport News, Virginia
Coordinates37°01′18″N 76°31′39″W / 37.0218°N 76.5275°W / 37.0218; -76.5275
Tower
Foundationscrew-pile
Constructioncast-iron/wood
Shapehexagonal house
Light
First lit1855
Deactivated1935
Lensfifth-order Fresnel lens

For the light in Lake Michigan, see White Shoal Light (Michigan).

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. By 1869 it was leaning badly and was declared unsafe, and 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. The latter still remains, the only remaining trace of the last lighthouse on the James.

References

  • Virginia Light Stations, from the United States Coast Guard website
  • White Shoal Light, from the Chesapeake Chapter of the United States Lighthouse Society
  • de Gast, Robert (1973). The Lighthouses of the Chesapeake. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 22-25