Jordan Point Light

Jordan Point Light
	The second Jordan Point Light in 1885
Location	Jordan Point on the south bank of the James River
Coordinates	37°18′47″N 77°13′24″W / 37.31304°N 77.22344°W ; (approx.)
Tower
Constructed	1855
Construction	wood
Height	18 m (59 ft)
Shape	Freestanding tower
Fog signal	Bell
Light
First lit	1856/1875(1870?)
Deactivated	1927
Focal height	35 feet (11 m)
Lens	sixth-order Fresnel lens
Characteristic	Fixed white

The Jordan Point Light was a lighthouse located on Jordan Point on the James River in Prince George County, Virginia, near the south end of the present Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge.

History

The history of this station is unclear, but some sources indicate that a light station was first established on Jordan Point in 1855. This consisted of a keeper's house with a masthead light on the roof. This arrangement was replaced circa 1875 (possibly as early as 1870) by a separate 35-foot (11 m) pyramidal wooden tower that housed a sixth order Fresnel lens and a fog bell. A new keeper's house was constructed in 1888.^[1]

In 1927 the station was deactivated and the wooden tower was later demolished. In 1941 a new steel skeleton tower was erected on the site of the old tower; this skeleton tower is still in service as the rear light of the Jordan Point Range, Light List #2-12420.^[2] Although the wooden tower is long gone the keeper's house built in 1888 still stands. It was extensively renovated in 2009 and is a private residence.

Notes

^ ^a ^b "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Virginia" (PDF). United States Coast Guard Historian's Office.
^ ^a ^b Light List, Volume II, Atlantic Coast, Shrewsbury River, New Jersey to Little River, South Carolina (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard. 2010. p. 114.

References

Media related to Jordan Point Light at Wikimedia Commons

Jordan Point Light, from the Chesapeake Chapter of the United States Lighthouse Society
de Gast, Robert (1973). The Lighthouses of the Chesapeake. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 150. ISBN 9780801815485.

[cghist-1] "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Virginia" (PDF). United States Coast Guard Historian's Office.

[cgll-2] Light List, Volume II, Atlantic Coast, Shrewsbury River, New Jersey to Little River, South Carolina (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard. 2010. p. 114.

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