Cross Ledge Lighthouse, c. 1890

Last crawled date: 1 year, 1 month ago

Cross Ledge Lighthouse was built between 1874 and 1878. This structure, built on a stout granite pier 22 feet high, replaced a series of lamped vessels. The station was constantly under threat from ice, however; massive stone blocks were dumped into the water around the pier due to scour problems on several occasions. The structure itself contained two four-room apartments on a central hallway; each had kitchen, living room, pantry, and two bedrooms with spacious closets. The third floor contained the oil closet, as well as the machinery used to ring the fog signel bell. Atop all of this was the fourth-order Fresnel lens from Ludlam Beach lights station in Sea Isle City, NJ. The station was closed in 1910 due to the presence of Elbow of Cross Ledge Lighthouse and Miah Maull Shoal Lighthouse, each spaced around two miles away on a northwest-southeast axis. The abandoned structure fell into disrepair, was used as a practice target for the troops training at NAS Wildwood. The Coast Guard burned down the superstructure in 1962 due to safety concerns, and, although all that currently remains is the granite pier, which is slowly settling into the ooze, plans are afoot to build a replica of the structure by approximately 2014. #abandon #abandoned #boat #brown #burn #burned #cab #cabin #cape #copy #delaware #deleware #destroy #destroyed #duplicate #fake #faux #fresnel #gray #green #iron #jersey #lamp #lantern #lens #Light #lighthouse #mansard #mock_up #mockup #new #new_jersey #pennsylvania #philadelphia #porthole #raze #razed #replica #shoal #shutter #station #steel #stone #victorian