Photos from the trip
Chesapeake Bay entrance
New Cape Henry Light
Fort Story, Virginia
Its real signal — watch it blink
Fl(3) W 20s — two short flashes, then a long one
One full cycle: 20 seconds.
- Built
- 1881
- First lit
- 1881
- Height
- 163 ft
- Focal plane
- 157 ft above water
- Status
- Still burning
- Visited
- Add your year
Cape Henry's modern keeper — a prefabricated cast-iron tower with vertical black-and-white stripes, shipped in pieces and bolted together in 1881. Its signature is unmistakable: two short flashes, then a seven-second-long one, over a red sector warning of the shoals. Both Cape Henry towers stand together at the gateway to the Chesapeake, one dark and one blazing.