LIGHTHOUSE PHOTOS
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Craighill Channel Lower Range Rear Light
Craighill Channel Lower Range Rear Light -14 March 1960
Craighill Channel Lower Range Rear Light circa 1912.
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Edgemere, Maryland, USA
Designated Waterway: Chesapeake Bay
The Craighill Channel Lower Range Rear Light in it's original location. The light is off Ramona Beach, Maryland in the Chesapeake Bay.
The Craighill Channel Lower Range Rear Light is one of a pair of range lights that marks the first section of the shipping channel into Baltimore harbor. It is the tallest lighthouse in Maryland.
Congress appropriated $50,000 in 1870 to enlarge the channel into Baltimore Harbor. The new channels were named after William Craighill, a lighthouse board member who supervised the surveys for the excavation. The first section of channel, starting from where Baltimore Light now stands, headed almost due north before turning into the Patapsco River, and new range lights were required to make it usable at night.
Initially the plan was to use screw-pile lighthouses (shore lights were never considered); ice in the winter of 1872-1873 led them to reconsider this, and the front light was built as a small caisson structure. For the rear light a grid of nine stone piers was laid out, and a pyramidal iron tower was erected. A central shaft of wood timbers sheathed in iron plates held the staircase to the lantern, and a wooden house surrounded this at the base of the light.
The expense of constructing foundation for the two lights exhausted the original appropriation and delayed completion until 1875; in the intervening two years lightships were used instead. The wooden construction of the central shaft had problems with rotting almost from the start, and as recently as 1994 a Coast Guard study suggested that it be removed. However, with repairs over the years it remains in place. The house was reportly rented out when the light was automated in 1923, and it was finally removed in 1938.
Located in the Bay and the entrance to the Patapsco River just east of Ramona Beach about 3 miles northeast of Fort Howard. Accessible only by boat. Views from Ramona Beach or from North Point State Park. Tower closed to public.
| Location Type |
Offshore |
|
Construction Type |
Cast-Iron Plate |
| Original Optics |
Fourth order Fresnel lens |
| Current Optics |
Fourth order Fresnel lens |
| Year Built |
1873 |
| Builder: |
|
| Operational: |
Yes |
| Date Deactivited: |
|
| Automated: |
Yes |
|
Markings: |
White iron skeletal base with red over white wood tower |
| Shape: |
Pyramidal iron frame surrounding a plate-encased stairway leading to double-decked lantern |
| Height: |
105 feet |
| Focal
Plane Height: |
|
| Range: |
16 miles |
| Sound
Signal Building: |
No |
| Sound
Device: |
|
| Existing
Keepers Quarters: |
Removed |
| Current
Use: |
Active ATON |
| Current
Owner/Manager: |
USCG |
| Open to
the Public: |
No |
| Web
Site: |
Craighill Channel Lower Range Rear Light |
National Register Status:
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 2 December 2002.
Miscellaneous
Range lights are used in pairs to mark a channel. Each one of the pair supports a light of different heights. When the two lights are aligned one is in the channel. Named after an engineer and longtime member of the lighthouse board, Craighill Channel cuts roughly five miles off the southern approach to Baltimore, entering Brewerton Channel (the main Patapsco River / Baltimore channel). As a major segment of the approach to the commercial ports of Baltimore this was a very important channel and the need to use it at night was acutely felt. The four Craighill Channel range lighthouses are really two separate ranges built a bit over ten years apart. The older and larger pair is the Lower Range and its construction coincided with a major dredging and enlarging of the Channel in 1870.
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