Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Bodkin Island Light

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Year first lit
  
1822

Tower shape
  
conical tower

Height
  
11 m

Year first constructed
  
1821

Construction
  
stone masonry

Fog signal
  
no

Opened
  
1822

Materials
  
Masonry, Stone

Bodkin Island Light wwwcheslightsorgimagesbodkin327gif

Location
  
Off Bodkin Point at the mouth of the Patapsco River

Deactivated
  
1856 then later destroyed by erosion

Similar
  
Hawkins Point Light, Somers Cove Light, Cobb Point Bar Light, Love Point Light, Maryland Point Light

The Bodkin Island Light (or Bodkin Point Light) was a lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay, United States, the first erected in Maryland.

History

The lighthouse was constructed as an aid to shipping entering Baltimore; it was built on Bodkin Island (not to be confused with an island of the same name located south of Kent Island), and was the first lighthouse in Maryland. The station was built by Thomas Evans and William Coppeck, who completed the 35-foot (11 m) stone tower and attached one-story keeper's dwelling in October 1821. Thirteen lamps were purchased from Winslow Lewis, and the station was formally inaugurated in January 1822.

The lighthouse was plagued by problems stemming from its poor construction during much of its brief existence, and it was replaced in 1856 by the Seven Foot Knoll Light in the Patapsco River. A fisherman is said to have lived in the dwelling for a time, but eventually the island was completely abandoned; the old tower collapsed in 1914. Today, Bodkin Island has disappeared, eaten away by erosion. What remains of the site is marked as a "navigational hazard" on sea charts.

References

Bodkin Island Light Wikipedia


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