By the 1870s, the 1792 tower at Cape Henry was showing its age as superficial cracks appeared and its second-order Fresnel lens no longer produced enough light for mariners, contributing to increasing shipwrecks. In 1878, Congress appropriated funds for a new lighthouse at Cape Henry, to be built in cast iron sections, shipped by barge from Philadelphia, and assembled on site, while a first order Fresnel lens was delivered from France. This new lens projected light 19 miles into the Chesapeake Bay. On December 15, 1881, Jay Edwards lit the New Cape Henry Lighthouse for the first time. Edwards was the last lighthouse keeper at the original Cape Lighthouse and the first keeper of the Cape Henry Light Station. Later changes at the new lighthouse included conversion to electricity in 1922, full automation in 1984, and the retirement in 1999 of the last light keeper at Cape Henry, the last manned light station in Virginia.
