Cape Charles Lighthouse

Cape Charles Lighthouse stands on remote Smith Island at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay as Virginia’s tallest lighthouse and the nation’s second tallest. The 191-foot cast-iron skeletal tower is the third light built here, after earlier 1828 and 1864 towers proved too low or too vulnerable to erosion along this exposed coast. Built in the mid-1890s, it featured an unusual numerical flash signal intended to help mariners identify the station, though the system saw little wider use. Electrified, later automated, and eventually decommissioned in 2019, it remains a prominent but deteriorating survivor of Chesapeake navigation history.

Cape Charles, Virginia · United States