Jeff Routzahn

Photos from the trip

Outer Banks

Cape Hatteras Light

Buxton, North Carolina

Its real signal — watch it blink

Fl W 7.5s — one white flash every 7½ seconds

One full cycle: 7.5 seconds.

Built
1870
First lit
1870
Height
200 ft
Focal plane
192 ft above water
Status
Still burning
Visited
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America's most famous lighthouse, and the tallest brick lighthouse in the country — 200 feet of black-and-white spiral stripes on the stormiest stretch of the Outer Banks. The Atlantic's 'graveyard of ships' is right offshore. In 1999 the National Park Service picked the whole tower up and moved it 2,900 feet inland to save it from the sea. Its light still flashes a single white blink every 7½ seconds.