On my way to the Chincoteague, I spotted a local car show taking place, so I stopped to grab a few classic shots:
I drove over Maryland's longest fixed water crossing; the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, made up of two spans, each over 4 miles long. But, there was no place to stop for a Kodak moment. Then I got to drive through a long stretch of wide open marsh lands whose beauty was cluttered by an endless line of large billboards giving the eerie impression of Burma Shave in the Land of the Giants.
The Assateague Lighthouse is located in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. There is a $5.00 entry fee and after you located the lighthouse parking area, you walk a 1/4 mile up a beach sand trail. In the staggering heat it felt like a steep graded treadmill workout in a sauna. The original structure was built in 1833, but this one was erected in 1867.
For a small fee, you can climb to the top and walk around the lower outside platform.
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, it is an active navigational aid.
Since 1850, the waterline has been "pushed back" about 5 miles, so this structure is not threatened by beach or cliff erosion.
154 feet tall, its' light can be seen for 19 miles.
Because I struck up a conversation with the docent at the top, who had just returned from a visit to Northern California's Point Reyes Lighthouse, she let me stick my head in the upper loft. It has twin rotating lights that flash one after the other.
I noticed several of these satellite/radar dishes and found a NASA museum, where I learned the Wallops Flight Facility is NASA's only owned and operated launch range, which has launched over 16,000 aerial vehicles.
