Year first lit 1841 Construction cast iron tower Height 29 m | Foundation concrete Opened 1841 | |
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Location Morant PointSaint ThomasJamaica Tower shape tapered cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern Markings / pattern tower painted with red and white horizontal bands Similar Galina Lighthouse, Lover's Leap Lighthouse, Plumb Point Lighthouse, Folly Lighthouse, Stokes Hall Great House | ||
Morant point lighthouse
Morant Point Lighthouse is on the easternmost tip of Jamaica.
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Erected in 1841 by Kru men from Africa (who were among the free Africans brought to Jamaica in the period following emancipation), it is the oldest lighthouse on the island and the first cast iron lighthouse built in the Western Hemisphere.
It consists of a 30 m (100 ft) iron tube, cast in London in 1841, which has a diameter of 5 m (18 ft) at the base and 3 m (11 ft) at the cap with lantern and gallery, painted with red and white horizontal bands. To protect against surf during hurricanes, a semicircular masonry wall has been built around the seaward side of the base of the lighthouse.
It was designed by Alexander Gordon and built by George Grove, later a leading writer on music.
It is listed by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust as a historic monument, being "of considerable interest to historians of industrial technology".
It is maintained by the Port Authority of Jamaica, an agency of the Ministry of Transport and Works.