![]() ![]() The district engineer concluded that the lens was defective, reporting that it had “little or no magnifying power” and had “a smoky cast or appearance.” The anchor lights of vessels in the harbor were reportedly more brilliant than the lighthouse, and a powerful second-order lens was installed in 1882 to remedy the problem. Mariners soon complained that the new beacon was not as bright as the original 1852 light. The new tower was painted with black and white horizontal bands to provide a distinctive daymark. The lamp in the station’s third-order Fresnel lens was first lit for mariners on November 19, 1872. Crow and Company of Galveston were contracted to construct the dwelling. The new tower was provided by Bailey and Debevoise of New York City for the sum of $25,850, while William F. The Lighthouse Board decided to pattern the new station after the one at Louisiana’s Pass a l’Outre, which consisted of a 117-foot iron tower and a wooden keeper’s dwelling. On July 15, 1870, Congress appropriated $40,000 for the construction of a second iron tower on the point. Given the dramatic cost increase for iron during the war and the fact that no piece of the original tower has ever been discovered, it is assumed that the iron sections were used as armor plating for ships or were melted down to produce military armaments.Īfter the war, a temporary thirty-four-foot, wooden tower was hastily established near the site of the original lighthouse, and the light from a fourth-order Fresnel lens was activated on August 5, 1865. ![]() Most of the southern lighthouses were darkened during the Civil War, but Bolivar Point Lighthouse was completely dismantled. Just three years later, Texas joined the other southern states in seceding from the Union. These modifications to the tower were completed by the summer of 1858. Complaints were also voiced by harbor pilots, prompting the Lighthouse Board to supply a third-order Fresnel lens and an additional twenty-four feet of sections for the tower. Eighteen lamps, backed by twenty-one inch reflectors, were installed in the tower by Christmas Day, and the light commenced operation shortly thereafter with Aaron Burns earning an annual salary of $600 as its keeper.ĭuring the light’s first year of service, the district lighthouse engineer petitioned for a brighter light and additional iron sections to elevate the light. ![]() The keeper’s dwelling was completed in April 1852, but work continued on the tower, which was painted red, until October. The iron sections for the sixty-five-foot tower were cast in Baltimore by Murray and Hazlehurst, shipped west, and then erected at Bolivar Point. In the meantime, a lightship was deployed at the Galveston bar to mark this most important Texas port. Protracted negotiations with the landowner coupled with delays by the Texas government in ceding jurisdiction over the site postponed work on the lighthouse until the fall of 1851. ![]() The proposed site for the lighthouse at Galveston was moved from Fort Point on the eastern end of Galveston Island to Bolivar Point, located on the opposite side of the entrance to Galveston Bay, at the western end of the Bolivar Peninsula. Wasting little time, Congress set aside $15,000 in 1847 for the construction of lighthouses at Galveston and at Matagorda Bay. However, before significant progress was made toward establishing the light, the United Sates annexed Texas, and the federal government assumed responsibility for navigational aids in Texas. On February 3, 1845, the Republic of Texas earmarked $7,000 for the establishment of a lighthouse on the eastern end of Galveston Island. ![]()
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