User:Mangoe/Sheboygan Breakwater Light

The Sheboygan Breakwater Light is a lighthouse standing at the entrance to the harbor at Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

History
The first Sheboygan Lighthouse was built north of the river on a bluff. The use of the river mouth as a harbor was hampered by shoaling, so in 1852 a series of improvements began. These first took the form of a pier extending out from the north side of the river mouth; this was matched by a parallel pier on the south. Each of these piers was marked with a light at its end, initially privately maintained.

In 1866 responsibility for the harbor was assumed by the federal government, and in 1873 the private lights were supplanted by a federally constructed lighthouse at the end of the north pier. The framework tower held a sixth-order Fresnel lens and was accessed by an elevated walkway (there being no dwelling on the pier). This tower burned in 1880.