Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in Buxton, on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, was built to guide ships away from the perilous Diamond Shoals, part of the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” After an inadequate 1802 tower drew growing criticism despite mid-19th-century improvements, the present brick lighthouse was completed in 1870 and first lit in 1871, becoming the tallest lighthouse in the United States and the tallest brick lighthouse tower in the world at the time. Its history has also been shaped by erosion: the light was temporarily moved inland in 1935, restored to the tower in 1950, and the entire structure was relocated in 1999 to protect it from the encroaching sea.