Sombrero Lighthouse is a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

that marks the Anegada Passage, which is the route from Europe into the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

. The lighthouse is located near the centre of Sombrero island, and reaches a height of almost above sea level.

History

The first lighthouse, built by the American company that extracted the phosphate on the island, came into operation 1 January 1868. It consisted of a circular pyramidal skeletal tower, on concrete base, with balcony and lantern; by 1893 it was managed by the British Board of Trade. In 1931, the old light system was changed and improved to 200,000 candle power and the tower received its first major repair when the basement was encased in concrete. In 1960

Hurricane Donna Hurricane Donna, known in Puerto Rico as Hurricane San Lorenzo, was the strongest hurricane of the 1960 Atlantic hurricane season, and caused severe damage to the Lesser Antilles, the Greater Antilles, and the East Coast of the United States, ...

damaged the lighthouse; a new one replaced it 20 July 1962. The second light was a square pyramidal skeletal tower high with central cylinder mounted on a concrete base. The lighthouses were staffed from 1868 to 2001. In 2001 Trinity House donated and installed the current automated tower, which is a cylindrical tower painted white with balcony and no lantern. The light is positioned at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

and emits one white flash in a 10 seconds period visible up to a distance of . Since 1 December 2001 Anguilla's Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources has been responsible for the maintenance of the navigational aids.

References

External links

Sombrero cultural heritage
{{Authority control Lighthouses in Anguilla Lighthouses completed in 1868

History

See also

References

External links