.jpg) The lighthouse on Fort Sumter | |
 | |
| Location | Charleston Harbor |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 32°45′8″N 79°52′29″W / 32.75222°N 79.87472°W (Fort Sumter) 32°46′45″N 79°55′45″W / 32.77917°N 79.92917°W (St. Philips) |
| Tower | |
| Constructed | 1855 (Fort Sumter) 1893 (St. Philip's) |
| Automated | 1950 (Fort Sumter) |
| Height | 51 feet (16 m) (Fort Sumter) 140 feet (43 m) (St. Philip's) |
| Shape | Hexagonal tower (Fort Sumter) Skeletal tower (Fort Sumter after 1893) Pyramidal church steeple (St. Philip's) |
| Fog signal | Bell (Fort Sumter) |
| Light | |
| Deactivated | 1915 (St. Philip's) early 1950s (Fort Sumter) |
| Lens | 5th order Fresnel lens (Fort Sumter) White lantern (St. Philip's) |
The Fort Sumter Range Lights are range lights to guide ships through the main channel of the Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The original front light was built at Fort Sumter and the original rear light was in the steeple of St. Philip's Church in Charleston, South Carolina.[1][2] Both lights were lit from 1893 to 1915 to make range lights.[1] Today the Fort Sumter Range is the main approach channel to Charleston Harbor.[3]
Fort Sumter, which was the site of the first battle of the Civil War,[4] is now a National Monument. St. Philip's is a National Historic Landmark that was built in 1836.[5][6]
- ^ a b Clary, Margie Willis, The Beacons of South Carolina, Sandlapper Publishing Co., Inc., Orangeburg, SC, 2005, pp. 107-108, ISBN 0-87844-176-X.
- ^ "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: South Carolina". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. Archived from the original on 2017-05-01. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
- ^ Light List, Volume III, Atlantic Coast, Little River, South Carolina to Econfina River, Florida (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard. 2007.
- ^ "Fort Sumter National Monument". US National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
- ^ "St. Philip's Episcopal Church (Charleston)". National Historic Landmarks Program. US National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
- ^ Putnam, George R., Lighthouses and Lightships of the United States, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA, 1917, pp. 99, ISBN 0-87844-176-X.