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| Both towers are identical and were completed in 1861. They are each 124 feet high and stand about 164 feet above the waterline. They are constructed of solid granite on the outside and a two foot thick inner wall of brick. Surprisingly the granite does not come from Rockport but from New Hampshire. Each block was cut, fitted and numbered on shore then brought to the island and assembled. | ||
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The tower is 22 feet in diameter at the base and 13 feet at the lantern room. There are 154 steps to the top.
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The top is surrounded by two catwalks. One is reached via the oil room just below the lantern room. The second is reached through a door in the lantern room. At one time the lantern housed a First Order Fresnel lens which was made in Paris. This lens stood 12 feet high and about 9 feet wide and was made up of hundreds of crystal glass segments hung on a heavy bronze framework in a “beehive” shape.
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It had a 13 wick oil lamp inside which gave a light that was able to be seen 22 miles away. The current lamp is a small electric fluorescent light that is maintained as a courtesy light for mariners by the Thacher Island Association. It replicates the original amber candlelight installed in the original 45 foot towers which were built in 1771 on this same spot. The Fresnel lens from this tower has been lost to vandals. The lens from the South tower, though, has been preserved and is on display at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in Groton, Connecticut. |
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From either tower one is able to see the skyline of Boston to the South and the mountains of Maine to the North-west. Looking down to the southeast about half mile off shore you may see an iron pole jutting out from the water. This marks an area called the “Londoner” so named because of the reef just below the surface which has claimed hundreds of vessels most bound to Boston from London in the early 1700’s. This reef was the reason these twin towers were built by the British of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1771. South Tower |
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