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Changing the bulb and cleaning the lens remains relatively the same today as it did years ago at Virginia’s Cape Henry Light Station. The main difference between then and now is that a brass lamp is no longer used for the four bulbs that were originally used to shine the beam from the lens 22 miles out to sea. The first order Fresnel lens that was installed when the lighthouse was first lighted in 1881 is still in use today.
The current Cape Henry Lighthouse tower was built to replace an old tower that had been built way back in 1792. In fact, the original, and still standing, old Cape Henry Lighthouse was the first lighthouse authorized to be built by the newly formed government of the United States of America under its new Constitution.
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