Foto's

The coastal waters off the Outer Banks of North Carolina are called the grave yard of the Atlantic because of the number of ships that have been lost since colonial times. The shifting stretch well beyond the shoreline which juts far into the Atlantic and the gulf stream . An early priority of the new country was to build a series of tall lighthouses with distinctive day markings and light pulses that could allow mariners to fix their locations day and night. I'll show these lighthouses in my next few postings. Although the Cape Henry Lights (see the two previous postings) are only 32mi (53km) north of Corolla (also called Currituck Beach), they are part of this family of lights. Corolla was first lit in 1875. The focus of its first order Fresnel lens is 158 ft (48m) above the water and can be seen for 18 mi (30 km). It flashes for 3 seconds every 20 seconds. Scanned from Kadachrome