Ice Covered North Breakwater Lighthouse

by Scott Olsen

Title

Ice Covered North Breakwater Lighthouse

Artist

Scott Olsen

Medium

Photograph - Photographs

Description

n 1845-46, a pier, roughly 600 feet long, was extended seaward from each side of the Racine River’s mouth, and in 1856-57 another 220 feet was added to the north pier. Racine Harbor Lighthouse was built atop cribwork adjacent to the north pier in 1866. This pier was extended 340 feet in 1869-70, prompting the Lighthouse Board to begin work on a pierhead beacon in July 1872. This wooden, framework tower was painted white and first exhibited its fixed red light on September 5, 1872. An elevated walkway linked the pierhead beacon to Racine Harbor Lighthouse, and the lights from these two structures formed a range for entering the harbor.
Between 1873 and 1881, the north pier was extended another 300 feet, and it grew by this amount again between 1893 and 1895, to reach its final length of over 1,700 feet. In 1893, M. B. Adams, a lighthouse engineer, devised a conduit that could be used for lighting pierheads “by means of post lanterns, placed in advance of the usual pierhead beacon.” A lantern, resting atop a small car, was run between the pierhead tower and the outer limit of the pier inside an enclosed conduit that measured one foot wide by two feet two inches tall and was supported by trestles placed at intervals of sixteen feet. The outer end of the conduit terminated at a box, fitted with three glass panes, that was mounted atop a post. Nine of these conduits were installed on piers in Lake Michigan in 1893-94. The length of the conduit at Racine was 288 feet, and when the light was established at the end of the conduit on May 28, 1894, the sixth-order light in the wooden tower was discontinued.In 1896, the wooden tower was relocated to the outer end of the pier, its sixth-order red light was reestablished on June 18, and the conduit light was discontinued. The conduit was removed from the pier, and some 438 feet of elevated walkway were built in its stead.
Go to this link for the rest of the story.
https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=241

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January 26th, 2021

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