Ragged Point Light

The Ragged Point Light was a screw-pile lighthouse located in the Potomac River. It was the last lighthouse built in Maryland waters and the last built at a location in the Chesapeake Bay.

Ragged Point Light
Locationoff Ragged Point in the Potomac River between Piney Point Light and St. Clements Island
Coordinates38.1544°N 76.6014°W / 38.1544; -76.6014
Year first lit1910
Deactivated1962
Foundationscrew-pile
Constructioncast-iron/wood
Tower shapehexagonal house
Focal height13.5 metre 
Original lensfourth-order Fresnel lens
CharacteristicFl W 6s 

History

The first request for a light at Ragged Point was made in 1896; funds were not appropriated, however, until 1906, and construction did not begin until an additional $5000 was appropriated. Construction finally began in 1910, and the light was commissioned in March of that year. It was the last lighthouse erected in Maryland.

In the early 1960s the light was strafed by planes on a training mission from the Patuxent Naval Air Station. The keepers were able to wave off the pilots, who had thought the light vacant. In 1962 the house was dismantled and a tower constructed on the old foundation.

References

  • "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Maryland" (PDF). United States Coast Guard Historian's Office.
  • Ragged Point Light, from the Chesapeake Chapter of the United States Lighthouse Society
  • de Gast, Robert (1973). The Lighthouses of the Chesapeake. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 157.
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