Amazing Abandoned Lighthouses

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for pilots at sea or on inland waterways.

Lighthouses are used to mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals and reefs, and safe entries to harbors, and can also assist in aerial navigation. Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance and replacement by modern electronic navigational aids.

Russian Polar Nuclear Lighthouses

Russian Northern coast is a vast territory lays for a few thousand of miles and all this coastline is inside the Polar Circle. Long polar winters mean no daylight at all, just one day changes another without any sign of the Sun rising above the horizon.

Communist Party of the Soviet Union decided to build a chain of lighthouses to guide ships finding their way in the dark polar night across uninhabited shores of the Soviet Russian Empire. So it has been done and a series of such lighthouses has been erected. They had to be fully autonomous, because they were situated hundreds and hundreds miles aways from any populated areas. After reviewing different ideas on how to make them work for a years without service and any external power supply, Soviet engineers decided to implement atomic energy to power up those structures. So, special lightweight small atomic reactors were produced in limited series to be delivered to the Polar Circle lands and to be installed on the lighthouses. Those small reactors could work in the independent mode for years and didn’t require any human interference, so it was very handy in the situation like this. It was a kind of robot-lighthouse which counted itself the time of the year and the length of the daylight, turned on its lights when it was needed and sent radio signals to near by ships to warn them on their journey.

Cape St George Lighthouses

Cape St George Lighthouse was a lighthouse that stood near Jervis Bay Village, Jervis Bay Territory, Australia. It was located about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south of the southern entrance to Jervis Bay.

Constructed in 1860 it was active until 1889. The tower was destroyed between 1917-1922 to avoid confusion in daylight. The ruins remain and are listed on the National Heritage List.

The ill fate of the lighthouse affected the lighthouse staff and their families. In July 1887, Harriet Parker, daughter of the Assistant light keepers, was accidentally shot dead in 1887 by Kate Gibson, the Chief Keeper’s daughter. The jury of the ensuing Coronial inquiry stated that Harriet had died “from a gunshot wound accidentally received, and that Kate Gibson was not to blame as they were skylarking …” Harriet Parker’s grave can be found in the nearby Greenpatch Camping Area. In 1895, Edward Bailey, the Chief Lighthouse Keeper, drowned while fishing 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south of the lighthouse, leaving a large family of eleven children. He was washed off the rocks and was believed to have been taken by sharks. His son Arthur took over him and reared his brothers and sisters. Another son, Arthur, became the Head Lighthouse keeper at Point Perpendicular Light when it opened in 1899.

Morris Island lighthouse

Morris Island Light is a lighthouse on Morris Island in South Carolina. The light stands on the southern side of the entrance to Charleston Harbor, north of the town of Folly Beach.

The lighthouse is unusual in that it now stands several hundred feet offshore. When constructed in 1876 the light was approximately 1,200 feet (370 m) from the water’s edge. However, the construction in 1889 of the jetties which protect the shipping lanes leading to Charleston Harbor altered ocean currents, resulting in the rapid erosion of Morris Island and the destruction of many structures and historical sites (such as Fort Wagner). By 1938 the shoreline had reached the lighthouse, forcing its automation as it was no longer safe or practical to keep it manned. In 1962 the Morris Island Light was decommissioned and replaced by the new Charleston Light, located on Sullivan’s Island at the north end of the harbor.

Great Isaac Cay Lighthouse

Great Isaac Cay Lighthouse was erected in 1859, and stands about 151 feet (46 m) tall. Some say a the full moon brings strange noises to the tiny island. In the late 19th century local lore tells of a ship wreck on the island with one survivor, an infant. The child’s distraught mother, known as the Grey Lady, is said to haunt the island to this very day, wailing in sorrow during the full moon. On August 4, 1969, the station was discovered to have been abandoned by its two keepers, who were never found.  Many believers in the Bermuda Triangle claim that the keepers were two more victims lost to its mysterious forces.

Though it might not be a mystery at all, whilst it is true on the 4th of August 1969 locals did find the island to be deserted. When one looks at the hurricane record from 1969, Hurricane Anna, the first hurricane of 1969 passed close enough to Great Isaac Island to cause dangerous weather for the tiny rock island. The dates the Hurricane passed the Bahama region were the 1st and 2 August. By the 4th of August, the hurricane was well into the Atlantic Ocean and weather would have been good enough to investigate why the Lighthouse wasn’t flashing the day or two after the hurricane. As a point of interest the full moon occurred on the July 29th and August 27, 1969. The grounds are open to the public, although the lighthouse itself has had stairs removed to block access to the interior of that structure. The keepers’ house, cistern, and assorted buildings are crumbling into ruins. The derelict collection of abandoned buildings make Great Isaac Cay a popular destination for boaters.

Peninsula Point Lighthouse

The point on the Stonington Peninsula is the southern extension of the Niagara Escarpment. A shoal extends more than 2 miles into the lake, posing a hazard to navigation. Danger was inherent in the confluence of reefs and the shipping channels—which lead to safety at the docks of Escanaba, Gladstone, Fayette and Nahma, Michigan. These busy ports transported fish, iron ore, lumber, among other products.

Under water the escarpment forms the northern tip of Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula Because of their placement on points of land, lighthouses are often situated on migratory pathways, and are so-called ‘bird traps.’  The Stonington Peninsula plays a crucial role in the migration of the Monarch butterfly, which gathers there in September before migrating across Lake Michigan to Door County, Wisconsin. In the fall, thousands of monarch butterflies converge on the area to rest before their migration across Green Bay. It has been called the Point Pelee of the Upper Peninsula, and is an important bird area. The location is also an important location for migratory birds, and has been deemed to be a successful effort by the Hiawatha National Forest. The area is said ot be a rock hound’s paradise. “The rocky shoreline yields fossils estimated at 400-500 million years old.”

via: travelvista