North Carolina Architecture

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North CarolinaArchitecture

• Lighthouses

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Map of NC Coast

• The coast of North Carolina is a chain of
• barrier islands known as The Outer Banks.
• Several of America's tallest and best known
• lighthouses were built to warn ships away
• from this dangerous coast.

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The Graveyard of the Atlantic

• A Cape is a landform which sticks out into a sea,
• ocean, lake or river. North Carolinas three
  great
• capes are Cape Fear, Cape Lookout and Cape
• Hatteras. Under the water off these capes are
  dangerous
• shoals which have caused over 2000 ships to sink
  off our coast.
• Due to these sunken ships, the area around Cape
  Hatteras
• has earned its name as The Graveyard of the
  Atlantic.
• Cape Fear Cape Lookout
  Cape Hatteras

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NCLighthouse Designs
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Currituck Beach

• Stands 162 feet tall and has a total of 214
  steps to the top.
• Light is still operational and visible for 19
  miles.
• Built in 1875, the Currituck Lighthouse was the
  last brick lighthouse to be built on the Outer
  Banks to fill a forty mile stretch of darkness
  between Cape Henry, VA and Cape Hatteras, NC.

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Bodie Island

• Bodie Island was originally named after the
  family who owned the land.
• Folklore often pronounced the name as body
  island instead, as a result of the many
  shipwrecked bodies that washed ashore on the
  island.
• Rising 165 feet and painted with striking black
  and white stripes.
• The third attempt to illuminate the perilous
  stretch of coast between Cape Hatteras and
  Currituck Beach.

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Cape Hatteras

• Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the tallest in the
  nation and a famous symbol of North Carolina.
• Its design of black and white spiral stripes has
  earned it the nickname as the Big Barber Pole.
• In the summer of 1999, as the ever-encroaching
  waters of the Atlantic Ocean threaten the
  structure, the Cape Hatteras Light was moved from
  its original location.
• Still in working operation, the light at the top
  is automated and visible every 7.5 seconds and in
  good visibility conditions, the beacon can often
  be seen for 20 miles.

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Ocracoke

• The Ocracoke Lighthouse is North Carolinas
  oldest operating lighthouse and the second oldest
  in the nation.
• At seventy-five feet, it is the shortest
  lighthouse on the North Carolina Coast and can be
  only be seen for 14 miles.
• By 1718, Blackbeard had come to regard Ocracoke
  as his favorite anchorage. He even reportedly had
  a house on the island, which he intended to use
  as a sort of pirate haven.

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Cape Lookout

• The Cape Lookout Lighthouse is a 163-foot high.
• It flashes every 15 seconds and is visible at
  least 12 miles out to sea and up to 19 miles.
• The Cape Lookout Light is one of the very few
  lighthouses that operate during the day.
• The Cape Lookout Lighthouse is the only such
  structure in the United States to bear the
  checkered daymark, which is the diamond pattern.
• This diamond pattern is to tell the difference
  between the lighthouses and also to show
  direction. The side points of the black diamonds
  point in a north-south direction, while the side
  points of the white diamonds point east-west.

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Oak Island

• There is no spiral staircase as found in most
  older lighthouses, but instead a series of ships
  ladders with a total of 131 steps to the lantern
  gallery level. 
• Built in 1958, it is one of the most recent
  lighthouses built on American shores.
• There are three bands of color on the lighthouse
  made with different colors of cement, so the
  lighthouse never needs painting.

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Bald Head Island

• Called Old Baldy
• Built in 1817, It is the oldest standing
  lighthouse in North Carolina
• The octagonal tower is constructed of brick and
  painted with plaster on the exterior. The ground
  floor is made of brick, while the remaining floor
  joist and the stairs are made from North Carolina
  Yellow Pine.
• Marks the mouth of the historic Cape Fear River.

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Currituck
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Bodie Island
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Cape Hatteras
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Ocracoke
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Cape Lookout
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Oak Island
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Bald Head Island
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All Eight Lighthouse designs
Cape Lookout Ocracoke Cape Hatteras