Governor Alexander Spotswood first proposed building a lighthouse at Cape Henry in a message to the Virginia House of Burgesses on November 27, 1720, and suggested that Maryland help pay part of the cost. For the next thirty-two years, various sessions of the House of Burgesses proposed a lighthouse there with Maryland's assistance, but nothing was done. In 1752, the General Assembly passed an act to construct it using revenue from an export tax on tobacco, but in 1759 the British government disallowed the law, claiming the tax would infringe on the tobacco trade. Another act passed in 1772 appropriated 6,000 pounds for construction, and work began before the British could object, but the American Revolution halted further progress. During the war, a lookout station and signal fires warned of approaching enemy ships. In 1789, the first Congress of the United States, at its first session, enacted a law to establish a lighthouse on Cape Henry near the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, and President George Washington approved it on August 7, 1789. The lighthouse was the first federal building authorized by the United States government under the Constitution. Virginia ceded two acres at Cape Henry to the federal government, and a contract was made to erect and equip the lighthouse. The contractor faced serious problems transporting the sandstone for the ninety-foot tower, but the stone came from the same Aquia, Virginia, quarries that provided stone for Mount Vernon, the U.S. Capitol, and the White House. The lighthouse was completed in 1791 at a cost of $17,500. Its light burned whale oil, and later kerosene, first in an iron lanthorn and then in Argand lamps with metal reflectors. In 1861, Civil War fighting damaged the light. The first lightship was placed in service between Cape Henry and Cape Charles in 1861 and remained until 1863, when the lighthouse was repaired and service was restored. The light continued to shine until 1881, when a modern lighthouse nearby replaced it and remains in use today.