U.S. Coast Guard Seaman Samantha Fisher is shown here, on August 1, 2014, carrying tools to the top of the Craighill Channel Lower Range Rear Lighthouse in Baltimore Harbor, Maryland to measure the voltage of a lamp-changer during a routine service call at the lighthouse. The lamp-changer automatically switches a burnt-out lamp to a new lamp to ensure that the light stays on. Fisher is a member of Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Team (ANT) Baltimore, the unit responsible for maintaining the lighthouse.
The Craighill Channel Lower Range Rear Lighthouse was built in 1873. Sometime in the 1930s, after it was automated, the beautiful keeper’s quarters were removed from the structure. In 2010, after some repairs were made to the previously unsafe wooden stairway at the upper section of the lighthouse, the Coast Guard removed the 4th order Fresnel lens and replaced it with a modern optic. Without proper care, this lighthouse may soon end up on the Lighthouse Digest Doomsday List of Endangered Lighthouses.
This story appeared in the
Nov/Dec 2014 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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