Dangerous shifting sandbars off this shore long threatened ships and coastal commerce in the "Graveyard of the Atlantic," prompting Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in 1790 to advocate lighthouses to aid mariners. The present structure is the third lighthouse built here. The first, built in 1848, stood 57 feet tall on an unstable foundation, became unsafe, and was razed. The second, built in 1859 and 90 feet tall, was destroyed by Confederate troops in 1861 during the Civil War. After completing the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in 1870, work crews began a new Bodie Island lighthouse, and on October 1, 1872, the current brick light was illuminated for the first time. It stands 167.6 feet tall, and its lantern room contains a first-order Fresnel lens that was first electrified in 1932. With lighthouses spaced about 40 miles apart along the coast, seafarers have near continuous views of these beacons while navigating offshore waters.