November 14th, 2012 by Piper Smith
The US government funded the construction of lighthouses to reduce the number of shipwrecks along the Floridian Reef. In the 1820s, lighthouses were erected at Cape Florida, Key West, Sand Key, Garden Key, and in the Dry Tortugas. Ironically, mariners complained that the light from lighthouses wasn’t visible enough. In fact, some vessels wrecked because their captains became confused about which lights they were seeing. So the employment of these lighthouses didn’t really do that much to aid ships and crew to a safe harbor. Many of the lighthouses constructed in the Florida Keys were destroyed by hurricanes and some were shut down during the Civil War.
Picture caption: One of the Lighthouses in the Keys.
