I found this old photo of Southeast Light, Block Island while searching for photos for my Facebook Page. The light was getting very close to the edge at this point. I captured the image sometime in the early 80's while I was fishing off the southeast corner of the island.



Bob

Bob, this photo really shows how precariously close to a disaster SEBlock lighthouse was.
Thanks for view. Do you have an after photo from same angle?
I think of this everytime I'm in Montauk taking photos from the park just west of the lighthouse.
Every year the cliffs to the west are eroding and crumbling into the Atlantic. Luckily the lighthouse has been stabilized with a riprock barrier surrounding the Point in a galvanised steel netting.

"In 1983 the Block Island Southeast Lighthouse Foundation was formed to save the light. The only way to do this was move it. It took the Foundation nearly ten years to raise the $2,000,000 to move the light. Half the money came from a federal grant. The rest came from selling some of the land to state and private sources.

On August 13, 1993, the lighthouse started its move inland. It took nineteen days to move it to a new location, three hundred feet from the bluff. It had to be moved in a zigzag pattern, so no one part of the light would receive too much stress.

After the move, the Block Island Southeast Lighthouse Foundation wanted to relight the lighthouse. The first order Fresnel lens at the light couldn't be used because the mercury had been removed from the revolving apparatus. The Coast Guard removed the lens and replaced it with another first order lens from the Cape Lookout Lighthouse in Beaufort, North Carolina. The Block Island Southeast Light was relighted on August 27, 1994. The Foundation has a small museum at the light."

-from
http://www.rhodeislandlighthousehistory.info/block_island_southeast_lighthouse.html

Good point, Bob. I'll try to locate a more updated photo since the move. It would be nice to have the before and after. I also have some photos of the move itself. As I find them, I'll post them.

Bob

Thanks for sharing the photo Bob. I've never been to Block Island but that photo really shows how close we all were to losing that beautiful lighthouse.

I'll be looking forward to the updated photo.

I ran across this photo of Southeast Light I took in July of 1986. The old light was looking good at that time.

Nice shot, Bob!

This distant shot showing the light nearing the cliff was taken July 1986.

Here's a couple of pics I took when they were moving the light in 1993.

Impressive pics Bob !!!

Thanks, Stan. I'm going to try to do more lighthouse photo work this summer, and I will be posting those pics at the CF.

Bob

A couple more pics of Southeast Light, Block Island.

A very well preserved antique auto parked on the side of the road leading to Southeast Light.



Image taken the early evening of the relighting ceremony of Southeast Light.