Location | Cape Florida Key Biscayne Florida United States |
---|---|
Coordinates | 25°39′59.72″N 80°09′21.47″W / 25.6665889°N 80.1559639°W |
Tower | |
Constructed | 1825 (first) |
Foundation | brick on coral reef[1] |
Construction | brick tower |
Automated | 1978 |
Height | 95 feet (29 m) |
Shape | tapered cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern |
Markings | white tower, black lantern |
Operator | State of Florida[2][3] |
Heritage | National Register of Historic Places listed place |
Light | |
First lit | 1847 (current) |
Deactivated | (1878–1978) and (1990–1996)[1] |
Focal height | 100 feet (30 m)[1] |
Lens | 1846: 17 Argand lamps with 21-in reflectors,[1] 1855: Second-order Fresnel lens, 1996: 300 mm lens[1] |
Characteristic | Fl W 6s. |
Cape Florida Lighthouse | |
Location | SE tip of Key Biscayne, inside Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, Florida |
Area | 1 acre (0.40 ha) |
Built | 1825 |
NRHP reference No. | 70000180[4] |
Added to NRHP | September 29, 1970 |
The Cape Florida Light is a lighthouse on Cape Florida at the south end of Key Biscayne in Miami-Dade County, Florida.[5] Constructed in 1825, it guided mariners off the Florida Reef, which starts near Key Biscayne and extends southward a few miles offshore of the Florida Keys.[6] It was operated by staff, with interruptions, until 1878, when it was replaced by the Fowey Rocks lighthouse. The lighthouse was put back into use in 1978 by the U.S. Coast Guard to mark the Florida Channel, the deepest natural channel into Biscayne Bay. They decommissioned it in 1990.
Within the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park since 1966, the lighthouse was relit in 1996. It is owned and operated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.[7]