Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Newspaper Articles

Reprinted by permission of The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina

June 18, 1999

The News & Observer

Lighthouse begins slow retreat from sea

By JERRY ALLEGOOD; STAFF WRITER

Page: A3

BUXTON -- After losing a 128-year standoff with the sea, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse began retreating inch by inch Thursday to safer ground.

It moved about five inches before pausing, and so slowly that the movement was barely visible to 2,000 to 3,000 spectators standing in the rain, straining for a glimpse.

"Move-move-move," someone chanted as a few people applauded.

The slight shift at 3:12 p.m. marked the start of a half- mile journey to rescue the lighthouse from erosion. By the end of the day the lighthouse, the nation's tallest at about 200 feet, had moved 10 feet, four inches.

The move, at speeds up to two inches a minute, is expected to take four to six weeks. It will cost $9.8 million.

Bob Reynolds, superintendent of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, was on a flag-draped balcony atop the spiral-striped lighthouse when a series of hydraulic jacks began pushing the structure, which has been mounted on rollers, down a steel track. He said he watched the arms of the push jacks down below and gauged the movement as the shiny pistons extended.

"If you've been in the lighthouse before you know what it was like to be up there during the move," he said. "You could not tell it was moving, It was extremely stable and moving slowly."

While there were few physical sensations, the emotions were another matter.

Joe Jakubik, manger of the relocation for International Chimney Corp., admitted that he choked up when the structure moved.

Jakubik said he had intended to watch from beneath the lighthouse but rode on a platform surrounding the base. Even from that vantage point, he said, there was little sensation of movement.

"Not a sound," he said.

The rain didn't create a problem, he said, and actually made it cooler.

Spectators lined the ridge of sand dunes around the lighthouse and packed a parking lot. Park service volunteer Dee Hardham used a hand-held counter to record about 10,400 people who came throughout the day to see the lighthouse.

Tiffany Garren and her boyfriend, Bruce Lanning of Columbus, Ohio, came to the site two times during the week while on vacation to see what some viewed as a historical occasion. Garren said she had been to the lighthouse many times as a child.

"It's kind of a neat thing to actually be here when it happens because I've been here so many times," she said.

Lanning said he could tell the lighthouse had moved because the frame shoved an orange cone on the track.

Marjorie Schlie of Oviedo, Fla., who was visiting Buxton, said she was able to videotape the move even if it was difficult to see. She said she came to see the move because she had been coming to the lighthouse for 35 years.

"I'm so glad they moved it while we were here," she said.

After a break to talk with reporters and explain the move, workers were back adjusting equipment. The lighthouse will move up to 100 feet a day, at speeds up to about two inches a minute. The lighthouse is scheduled to be at its new home in four to six weeks. Then it will be placed on a new foundation beside support buildings and keepers' quarters that were moved earlier.

At that spot, the lighthouse will be 1,600 feet from the ocean, the same distance it was when it was built in 1870.

Jim Matyiko of Expert House Movers, one of the subcontractors, said Thursday that he was elated with the horizontal movement but that he would withhold celebrating until the end of the road.

"It's going to go good," he said. "No question about it."

### Online: The online version of this story includes links to several related Web sites, including a Web camera that will show the moving of the lighthouse. Find it at www.news-observer.com

Section: News
Edition: Final
Estimated Printed Pages: 2

Index Terms:
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
NC
coast

Copyright 1999 by The News & Observer Pub. Co.

Record Number: 1999168027