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Cleveland West Pierhead Lighthouse (Ohio) Cleveland West Pierhead Lighthouse, and its "sister", Cleveland East Pierhead Lighthouse, in Cleveland, Ohio, have been guarding the point where the Cuyahoga River meets Lake Erie since March 1911. They are the ___th such structures to operate in Cleveland's harbor since 1830. Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Notes 3 Further reading 4 External links [edit]History

1. History.

Once the Erie Canal opened, and after Ohio's inland canals linking the Ohio River to the Great Lakes were established, the shipping industry burgeoned. The ___ U.S. Congress appropriated $____ for the construction of a light tower on a 150-foot bluff above the Cuyahoga River's entrance into Lake Erie. Contractor ______ built the __foot  tower of native limestone, using a design very similar to the one that had been built on Marblehead Peninsula in 1819. The first keeper was _____________. He and his famly lived in a one-story home on the site, at the corner of ______ (now ____) and ____ (now _____). Within a year's time, the city's shipping interests determined that additional illumination was needed right at the water's edge, and a ___-foot skeletal-form tower was constructed on the east pier of the harbor. This tower was replaced in the 1850s with a sturdier, six-sided tower. The high and low towers operated similarly to range lights until a railroad took over the east pier. In 1872, the U.S. Lighthouse ____ replaced the simple stone lighthouse on the hill with an elaborate brick tower attached to a two-family keeper dwelling. By now, two keepers were needed to maintain the "main" light as well as the beacon lights below, located close to the water's edge. In 1876, a facility for the u.S. Life Saving Service was built on the west pier of Cleveland Harbor. By 1878, the federal government had undertaken extensive harbor improvements, including two ___-long breakwalls. A used lighthouse (from Genessee NY) was moved to Cleveland and installed on the east end of the West Breakwater in order to provide sweeping lake-level navigational support. With so many lights in operation, in addition to a newly-built fog signal on the West Breakwater site, additional keepers were needed. In ____ the keeper dwelling was expanded to accommondate two more families.

After an 1894 fire in a nearby commercial building damaged the lantern on the now-dimmed 1872 lighthouse at ____ and ___, the tower was torn down. Some of its lantern parts were taken to ___________ for installation there (where it still exists). Keepers and their families continued to live in the four-suite dwelling until 1927.

Meanwhile, lake-going vessels were becoming ever longer and it was determined that extensions (pierheads) needed to be added to the breakwaters to provide a longer, calmer entry point for ships. Even though the West Breakwater Lighthouse had been raised 20 feet in ____, it could no longer provide adequate navigational support. In ____, Congress appropriated _____ to build not one, but two, lighthouses at the ends of the new pierheads. Both ligthhouses are cast iron attached to concrete cribs. The West Pierhead Light is ___ feet tall and the shorter East Pierhead Light is ___ feet tall. In 1916, a fog-signal building was added to the West Pierhead site. The West Pierhead lighthouse was built to provide basic overnight housing for the keepers, and, in the 1940s for a radio station as well. The East Pierhead lighthouse has only minimal workspace inside. Today, as in 1910, the lights are only accessible by boat.

After serving as a home for numerous keepers and their families for nearly 60 years, the brick dwelling at ___ and ___ was torn down to make space for a four-lane highway bridge through the city. Today, only a retaining wall and steps from the original stone base of the 1872 lighthosue remain in evidence at ___ and ___ to mark the site of the first Cleveland lighthouses. Two duplexes were purchased on ____ for the keepers and their families, making their commuting distance to work considerab ly greater.

Cleveland's West Pierhead light sports distinctive cross-hatched window panes in its lantern and it has always contained some variation of a white and red light pattern. Today it _______________. The East Pierhead light has a green light.

The lifesaving station was maintained on the west pier at Cleveland Harbor until it became part of the U.S. Coast guard in 1937. In ___ a new station was built on the expanded pier. Its tall Art Moderne-style watch tower often been mistakenly called a lighthouse, although it never contained navigational light system.

The first lighthosue in Cleveland in 1830 used sperm-oil lamps to provide light. Through the years since, nearly every type of lighthouse illumination invented has been in use at some time in Cleveland harbor in an effort to get the best combination of height, lumens, and endurance. Since ____, the two pierhead lights have been solar-operated. The 3 1/2-order Fresnel lens that served the harbor from 1885 to 19__ is on display at the Great Lakes science center.

Today the 9th District U.S. Coast Guard maintains the several navigational devices in and around Clevelnad Harbor. Both pierhead lighthosues have been offered for sale at various times through the years and the fog-signal building has been considered for demolition. Yet all three pierhead structures remain vigilant to the shipping and pleasure boating activities around them. In December 2010, the ice-covered West Pierhead lighthouse attracted world-wide attention when photographers and videographers captured its unusual visage for all to see.

2. Notes

3. Further Reading.

"Cleveland's Lighthouses," Janice B. Patterson. Arcadia Publishing, 2009. "Ohio's Lighthosues. _____________________Arcadia Publishing, 2011.

4. External LInks.

Cleveland Memory.

Ed Rowlett's site.

U.S. coast Guard Historian

Bowling Green site