Cape Henry and Cape Charles define the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, and in September 1781 the waters off Cape Henry saw two-and-a-half hours of naval warfare when America’s ally France sent ships to deny an English fleet access to the bay. This battle off the cape allowed General George Washington to finish the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, and the British Army could not be rescued. The new United States government built the old Cape Henry Lighthouse in 1792 as its first federal work project, and the light, which cost $17,700 to construct, ensured safe sailing commerce on the Virginia and Maryland coasts. Almost 100 years later, a new lighthouse of steel was built for safety reasons and opened in 1881.
