Photograph: Cape Canaveral Lighthouse and Oil House.jpg by PhotogirlCMB · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Restored from the credited Wikimedia Commons file, normalized to the consistent attraction-card frame and converted to WebP by 1stFlorida.com. Portrait originals retain their complete composition over a softly blurred extension of the same photograph.
Brevard County attraction
Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Brevard County · Atlantic Coast
A cast-iron tower first lit in 1868, standing inside an active military installation and reachable only on a tour booked at least four days ahead.
QUESTIONS THAT NAME THIS PLACE ABOUT THIS PLACE
The Cape Canaveral Lighthouse has stood on the Cape for more than 155 years and is owned today by the United States Space Force, with the Coast Guard maintaining it as an active aid to navigation. Because it sits inside an active military installation you cannot drive to it: the public can only visit on a prescheduled tour, and tours have to be booked at least four days ahead. The tour covers the lighthouse, a museum and a gift shop, and the Sands Space History Museum stands on the same site. The tower stands 151 feet. The light here was first lit on May 10, 1868, and the tower was built of cast iron plate designed to be taken apart and moved cheaply, which turned out to matter: the sea came close enough that between 1893 and 1894 the whole thing was dismantled, hauled about a mile inland on a mule-drawn tram and rebuilt, relit on July 25, 1894. The three black and three white bands went on in 1873. Keepers lived in the lower three levels at first, found it unpleasant, and were given proper houses in 1876. A first-order Fresnel lens made by Henry-Lepaute of Paris served until 1993, when damage from launch vibration took it out. The light was automated in 1960, and ownership passed from the Coast Guard to the Air Force on December 14, 2000
GOOD TO KNOW
The lighthouse is inside an active military installation, so you cannot drive your own vehicle in. The public can only visit on a tour, and tours must be booked at least four days ahead. A retired military ID will not get you onto Cape Canaveral Space Force Station; you still have to take the public tour. Badged CCSFS personnel have an open house every Wednesday 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., when Hangar C is also open.
Confirm on the official site before you go.
MOVING TO BREVARD COUNTY? Fourteen services. One business each. Attorneys, movers, insurance, title companies, roofers and nine more — one listed business per service in Brevard County.
See local help in Brevard County → 