First Order Fresnel Lens from the Hog Island Light

The first order Fresnel lens from the second Hog Island Light began service in 1896. Hog Island Light was originally established in 1852 on the north side of the Great Machipongo Inlet on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, but the first building was destroyed by erosion and a new light was built in 1896. The light was deactivated in 1948 and demolished that year, and the locations of both lights are now under water off the Eastern Shore. Named for the French physicist Augustin Fresnel, who devised the optical system around 1822, the lens is about 10 feet high, weighs 2,500 pounds, and is among the largest and brightest of its kind, with more than 250 prisms of optical glass. Only the lens at Makapu’u Point Light in Hawaii is larger.

Portsmouth, Virginia · United States