Screwpiles: The Forgotten Lighthouses

Art by Karla Smith

Masonry Tower Lighthouses The very first public works project under the new United States government was the construction of the Cape Henry Lighthouse marking the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay in 1792. Ten years later, Old Point Comfort Light first displayed its light and remains today as an active navigational aid, marking the entrance to the James River and Hampton Roads. Old Point Comfort was the first lighthouse built inside the bay, but more were to follow. New Point Comfort, built in 1805, marked the northern entrance to the York River at Mobjack Bay, and in 1829, Back River Lighthouse rose near the mouth of the York River. Cape Charles, built in 1828, marked the northern approach from the Atlantic into the Chesapeake Bay. The masonry towers marking the entrances to the Chesapeake Bay and its major rivers were important, but as populations settled farther up navigable rivers and sail turned to steam power, inland bays and rivers required their own guiding beacons. Steamships, Shoals, and Surveys Steam power and its application to both railroads and steamboats was a transportation game changer as Richmond connected the Atlantic Coast to the interior via the James River. Ship captains had been sailing up and down the 100 miles of the James River for almost two centuries, and travel time was dependent on tide and wind. The trip could take days. By 1775, farmers were floating tobacco and other farm products from the upper James River to the growing port of Richmond. Return trips to the interior were difficult, and soon a plan developed for a canal.

The Lighthouse Service became a part of the Treasury Department and the secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton, became its first administrator. Responsibility for aids to navigation changed hands several times from Treasury to Commissioner of Revenue and back until 1820 when the Fifth Auditor of Treasury, Stephen Pleasanton, took command of the Lighthouse Service until 1851. The Lighthouse Service reorganized as the U.S. Lighthouse Board in 1851 and remained as a quasi military organization until 1910. Congress terminated the Lighthouse Board in 1910 and established the Lighthouse Bureau under the Department of Commerce with George Putnam as chief from 1910 to 1935. Change came again when the U.S. Coast Guard incorporated the Lighthouse Bureau in 1939. 14 Coastal Lighthouses under the United States Jurisdiction The correct positioning of all lighthouses took into consideration the safety of mariners, their ships, passengers, and cargo. Ship pilots and captains played a major role in deciding the optimal place for the lights. In a letter dated December 20, 1797, a group of pilots and ship captains signed a petition to have the Commonwealth of Virginia cede land at Old Point Comfort for the erection of a lighthouse. They opened their petition with, “Sundry merchants, members of pilots and other mariner humbly showeth that the want of a light on Old Point Comfort during dark and boisterous weather in a very eminent degree exposes lives and property of many persons to hazards and destruction.” 15 Funding Internal Improvements for Transportation Needs Various acts for internal improvements passed at both the federal and state legislative levels. The power to improve their own harbors and rivers was clearly reserved to the states, aided by tonnage duties levied and collected by them with the consent of Congress. The state-funded improvements were limited to dredging, clearing channels, and the construction of roads and canals. Federal improvements were the establishment and maintenance of aids to navigation.

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