Skip to main content

Lens

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: Water TransportationEra: 1800-1829DateCreated: 1803Cape HatterasState: NCCountry: USAWebsite: http://www.asce.org/project/Cape-Hatteras-Lighthouse/

The Atlantic Ocean's northward-flowing Gulf Stream meets the southward-flowing Labrador Current at a point marked approximately by North Carolina's Outer Banks. Since the earliest days of United States commerce, shifting tides, inclement weather, treacherous shoals, and a low-lying shoreline there contributed to what soon became known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. Warning sailors of this danger quickly became a top priority in the integrated system of navigational aids provided by the federal government to promote safe passage along the Atlantic Coast.  

YearAdded:
1999
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/almassengale (CC BY-ND 2.0)Image Caption: Cape Hatteras LighthouseEra_date_from: 1803
Subscribe to Lens

Innovations

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

The Atlantic Ocean's northward-flowing Gulf Stream meets the southward-flowing Labrador Current at a point marked approximately by North Carolina's Outer Banks. Since the earliest days of United States commerce, shifting tides, inclement weather, treacherous shoals, and a low-lying shoreline…

Read More

We hope you enjoyed this essay.

Please support America's only magazine of the history of engineering and innovation, and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to Invention & Technology.

Donate

Stay informed - subscribe to our newsletter.
The subscriber's email address.