Living large in Rhode Island

LIGHTHOUSE:

As a very small state divided by a very large bay, maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that Rhode Island has 14 historic lighthouses still functioning as aids to navigation. The tallest lighthouse tower, built in 1884, is the 66-foot-high, brick-lined, cast-iron tower topped by Sakonnet Light on Little Cormorant Rock in the Sakonnet River near Little Compton. But the highest light is the Block Island Southeast Light on Mohegan Bluffs. The 1875 brick tower only rises 52 feet from its base, but because the lighthouse sits on a cliff above the sea, the focal plane of the light (measured as the midpoint of the light) is 258 feet above sea level.

(Jason Johns for The Boston Globe)
LIGHTHOUSE: As a very small state divided by a very large bay, maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that Rhode Island has 14 historic lighthouses still functioning as aids to navigation. The tallest lighthouse tower, built in 1884, is the 66-foot-high, brick-lined, cast-iron tower topped by Sakonnet Light on Little Cormorant Rock in the Sakonnet River near Little Compton. But the highest light is the Block Island Southeast Light on Mohegan Bluffs. The 1875 brick tower only rises 52 feet from its base, but because the lighthouse sits on a cliff above the sea, the focal plane of the light (measured as the midpoint of the light) is 258 feet above sea level.