Jordan Point Light
The Jordan Point Light was a lighthouse located on Jordan Point on the James River in Prince George County, Virginia, near the south end of the present Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge.
 The second Jordan Point Light in 1885 | |
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| Location | Jordan Point on the south bank of the James River |
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| Coordinates | 37.31304°N 77.22344°W (approx.) |
| Year first constructed | 1855 |
| Year first lit | 1856/1875(1870?) |
| Deactivated | 1927 |
| Construction | wood |
| Tower shape | Freestanding tower |
| Tower height | 18 metre  |
| Focal height | 35 feet (11 m) |
| Original lens | sixth-order Fresnel lens |
| Characteristic | Fixed white |
| Fog signal | Bell [2] |
History
The history of this station is somewhat confusing, but it appears that a light station was first established on Jordan Point in 1855. This consisted of a keeper's house with a masthead light on the roof. This arrangement was replaced circa 1875 (possibly as early as 1870) by a separate 35-foot (11 m) pyramidal wooden tower that housed a sixth order Fresnel lens and a fog bell. A new keeper's house was constructed in 1888.[1]
In 1927 the station was deactivated and the wooden tower was later demolished. In 1941 a new steel skeleton tower was erected on the site of the old tower; this skeleton tower is still in service as the rear light of the Jordan Point Range, Light List #2-12420.[2] Although the wooden tower is long gone the keeper's house built in 1888 still stands. It was extensively renovated in 2009 and is a private residence.
Notes
- "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Virginia" (PDF). United States Coast Guard Historian's Office.
- Light List, Volume II, Atlantic Coast, Shrewsbury River, New Jersey to Little River, South Carolina (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard. 2010. p. 114.
References
Media related to Jordan Point Light at Wikimedia Commons
- Jordan Point Light, from the Chesapeake Chapter of the United States Lighthouse Society
- de Gast, Robert (1973). The Lighthouses of the Chesapeake. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 150.
