St George's Island Lighthouse

by Joan Carroll

Title

St George's Island Lighthouse

Artist

Joan Carroll

Medium

Photograph - Digital Art

Description

Like all lighthouses, the St George's Island lighthouse on St George Island FL has a rich and varied history. In the 1830s, Apalachicola was Florida's largest port, and cotton was the reason why. From the city, the Apalachicola River winds inland for over three hundred miles to Columbus, Georgia. Some fifteen steamboats once plied the river, transporting the fluffy white gold grown in eastern Alabama and western Georgia to the Gulf. The cotton bales were then transferred to three-masted ships, which transported the crop to mills located in New England and Europe. In 1836, 50,000 bales were shipped from Apalachicola, which by that time was the third largest cotton port on the Gulf Coast, behind New Orleans and Mobile. A lighthouse was needed to mark Apalachacola Bay and the first one constructed in 1833 while the current one is the third at the site. This 1852 lighthouse originally stood over 500 yards from the Gulf, but by 1990 the beach erosion on the Gulf side of the island threatened the lighthouse. Hurricane Andrew removed most of the remaining buffer zone in 1992. Before the beach could build back up following Hurricane Andrew, Hurricane Opal struck in 1995. The resulting tidal surge swept around the lighthouse, forcing it off its piling foundation. While the lighthouse seemed to survive damage from Hurricane Dennis in July of 2005, years of damage were apparently too much and on Friday, October 21, 2005 the Cape St. George Light collapsed into the Gulf of Mexico. for lighthouse lovers, it was a sad day indeed. On Monday, December 1, 2008, the reconstructed lighthouse was opened to the public. Working with state and federal government support, the St. George Lighthouse Association spearheaded the effort to salvage the pieces of the Light. Volunteers cleaned the mortar off thousands of the old bricks. The original plans were obtained from the National Archives in Washington, D.C. and the lighthouse was reconstructed on St. George Island, using as much of the original materials as possible.

FEATURED PHOTO< Showcasing The South group, 12/3/18

FEATURED PHOTO, Florida-Images of The Sunshine State group, 1/2/16

FEATURED PHOTO, The Road To Self Promotion group, 1/2/16

Uploaded

January 1st, 2016

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Viewed 4,116 Times  -  Last Visitor from Ottawa, ON - Canada on 04/19/2024 at 8:38 AM

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