Photo credit: Toledo Harbor Lighthouse Preservation Society |
Like a weary sentinel, the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse sit atop a crib about five miles offshore, marking the entrance to the Toledo Shipping Channel where Lake Erie and Maumee Bay meet. Its light has been shining out over the lake for more over a century and now, for the first time in over fifty years, the public will have an opportunity to go inside.
An imposing, if somewhat drab, structure, the Army Corps of Engineers designed the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse and construction began in 1901. The structure was completed three years later at a cost of $152,000. The Toledo Lighthouse is four stories high with a steel frame and an attached one-story fog signal annex building. The lighthouse stands 85 feet in height. First illuminated May 23, 1904, the 3-½ order Fresnel lens featured a 180-degree bulls eye, two smaller 60-degree bulls eyes and a ruby red half cylinder glass made in Paris, France by Barbier and Bernard. A weighted clockwork mechanism made the light rotate. The original Fennel lens could be seen from up to twenty-four miles. The original lens is located at the Imagination Station, a children's science center in downtown Toledo, Ohio.
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