Garden Key Light

Garden Key Light at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas began as a brick conical tower started in 1824 and first lit in 1826, when it and its outbuildings were the island's only structures. After construction of Fort Jefferson began around it in 1846, the light shifted from a major beacon to a more local harbor light when a separate Dry Tortugas lighthouse was built nearby in 1858. The original tower was replaced in 1877 by an iron tower within the fort, automated in 1912 after the keeper's house burned, and deactivated in 1924. Its history also connects Fort Jefferson, Gulf navigation, USS Maine, and American literature.