Chatham Light
Chatham Light has watched over the elbow of Cape Cod since 1808, when it became the second lighthouse on the Cape after Highland Light in Truro. To keep sailors from mistaking one for the other, Chatham was built with two wooden towers side by side, a pair of lights that marked the way through one of the most treacherous stretches of the Atlantic coast.
The sea kept coming for it. The towers were rebuilt in brick in 1841, then moved back from the eroding bluff in 1877 to the cast-iron towers that stand today. In 1923 the north tower was taken down and carried up the coast to Eastham, where it still shines as Nauset Light.
The light was electrified in 1939 and automated in 1982, and the old keeper’s house is now home to Coast Guard Station Chatham. On a clear night its beam reaches about 24 nautical miles out to sea, and across the road, Lighthouse Beach is one of the best places in town to watch the sun come up.
