I can't begin to tell you how many light towers I have climbed, but suffice to say that there are about 330 or so lighthouses on the East Coast and I have photographed 2/3's of them. I have climbed Barnegat Inlet above and at 172 feet high it quite an exercise. Now when climbing a lighthouse tower, you have to remember just how they were built. The open area at the bottom is wider than the top, thus claustrophobia is at play. Of course with my inner ears that have been clogged over the years with all kinds of riff raff, changes in air pressure plays havoc with my balance. OK, so I got claustrophobia and am dizzy, but at least I didn't have to carry two five gallon buckets of whale oil up 172 feet three times a night. Seventeen stories by modern count!
The other tower lighthouse in New Jersey is of course Cape May, which is 170feet tall. Almost 17 stories. "The present Cape May brick tower rests on a 12-foot deep, pyramidal foundation of stone blocks. It is of double wall construction. The exterior wall has a base diameter of 27 feet, tapering to 13.5. It's thicknesses range from 3.75 feet at the base to 1.5 at the watchroom deck."
That information and a great deal more can be found in what I call the Lighthouse Bible. A book called "America's Atlantic Coast Lighthouses", by Kenneth G. Kochel. The book includes all the east coast lights giving directions and facts about each light. The book is 486 pages long and without it you won't find half of the lights.
It's amazing the work done in building these things back in the 1800's when none of today's heavy equipment had even been invented. Just plain good old manual labor I guess.
And above is the reason these things were built. That light kept burning all night long regardless of weather, equipment malfunction, in sickness and health. Back then the keepers were not paid much over $500 a year in salary, but they also had their board and it was a very respected profession back in the day.
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