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New Point Comfort Light, completed in 1804 in Chesapeake Bay off Virginia’s Middle Peninsula, is among the oldest surviving lighthouses in both the bay and the United States and still stands at its original site. Built by Elzy Burroughs as an early federal navigational aid, it endured disputes over land, destruction during the War of 1812, Civil War extinguishing, modernization in the twentieth century, and constant erosion that left it isolated after the 1933 hurricane. Deactivated in 1963 after shoaling reduced its usefulness, it was later preserved through local and grant-supported restoration, relit in October 2021, and remains visible from Mathews County’s southern tip.
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Mathews, Virginia · United States
