For more than a century, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse stood as one of the most recognizable landmarks on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. But by the late 20th century, the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States was facing a problem that no amount of masonry could solve: the ocean was getting dangerously close.
Built in 1870, the 198.49-foot lighthouse had originally stood roughly 1,500 feet from the Atlantic. Decades of shoreline erosion had dramatically narrowed that distance. By the late 1990s, the sea was within about 60 feet of the tower, raising the prospect that one of America's most important historic lighthouses could eventually be lost to the shifting coastline.
