Bug Light

by Joan Carroll

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Dimensions

18.000 x 12.000 inches

Title

Bug Light

Artist

Joan Carroll

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photograph

Description

This lighthouse is cute as a bug! Maybe that's how it got the name Bug Light! It's 'real' name is Portland Breakwater Light and is perhaps the cute little sibling of the more impressive and well known Portland Head Light. The lighthouse's flashing red beacon helped guide ships from Casco Bay through the entrance to Portland Harbor so it is not on a spectacular rocky coast. The lighthouse was first built in 1855, as a wooden structure, but the breakwater was extended and a new lighthouse was constructed at the end of it. The new lighthouse was made of curved cast-iron plates whose seams are disguised by six decorative Corinthian columns. Its design was inspired by the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens, made well known by engravings. The architect was Thomas U. Walter, most noted as the designer of the U.S. Capitol east and west wings and its current dome. I especially love the the fluting at the top of the white part of the structure. The lighthouse was discontinued in 1943 but was donated to the city of South Portland in 1985. After a restoration, it was re-lit in 2002. It appears as a private aid to navigation in the US Coast Guard Light List as South Portland Breakwater Light. Today a park named after the lighthouse, Bug Light Park, allows visitors to view the Portland Breakwater Light up close, while memorializing the shipbuilding efforts of Portland in World War II. The light was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Portland Breakwater Light on June 19, 1973.

FEATURED PHOTO, Artists News group, 7/15/13

FEATURED PHOTO, FAA Featured Images group, 7/12/13

FEATURED PHOTO, Photography and Textures make Fine Art group, 7/9/13

Uploaded

July 9th, 2013

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