Screwpiles: The Forgotten Lighthouses

Where to Place New Navigational Aids? Surveys of the James River for the purposes of improving navigation began in 1818. Among the earliest maps was one by T. Roberdeau, a major in the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, compiled in 1819. He used the original soundings from a Chesapeake Bay reconnoitering made in 1818. The soundings, all in feet, show a continuous, natural deep channel from Newport News to Hog Island. In April 1853, when Major Hartman Bache of the Corps of Topographical Engineers made his survey, he used the Roberdeau map. Bache’s survey shows the major points of the river: Day’s Point, White Shoal, Deep Water Shoals, Glover’s Bluff, and Point of Shoals. 20

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