Port Washington Breakwater Light

Port Washington Breakwater Light guards the harbor entrance at Port Washington, Wisconsin, on Lake Michigan. Built in 1935 as the second lighthouse at this site, it replaced an earlier pier light that had succeeded the town’s original lighthouse after harbor dredging and pier extensions in the 1870s shifted the need to marking the channel itself. The present steel-plate, Art Deco tower arose during a major harbor enlargement linked to industrial growth and a new power plant that increased coal shipping. Using the earlier fourth-order Fresnel lens, it worked with a shorter south breakwater light, remained active for decades, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.

Wisconsin · United States