Delaware Breakwater East End Lighthouse

The Delaware Breakwater East End Lighthouse, a brown conical structure on the eastern end of the Delaware Breakwater, was built in 1885 with a tower of four tiers of cast iron plates lined with two feet of brick, measuring twenty-two feet in diameter at the base and set on a circular concrete foundation. When completed, it was equipped with a fourth order Fresnel lens showing a fixed white light with a red sector facing seaward to warn mariners of the dangerous shoals off Cape Henlopen, and the light had a focal plane sixty-one feet above sea level with a visibility of thirteen nautical miles. A steam powered Daboll fog trumpet was added in November 1885. From 1903 until 1918, it served as the front light of the Delaware Breakwater Range. It was automated on July 11, 1950, later served for a time during the 1960s and 1970s as a base of operations for the Pilots' Association of the Bay and River Delaware, was decommissioned in 1996, and on February 5, 1999, was formally conveyed by the United States Government to the State of Delaware.

Lewes, Delaware · United States