Florida lighthouses – earn the T shirt
Florida lighthouses have great views but it takes effort to get to the view.
I earned this T-shirt pictured above the old-fashioned way – by actually doing what it says – climbing 203 stairs to the top of Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse. The lighthouse is 175 feet tall and the view from the top looks out over the Atlantic Ocean and Ponce Inlet.
This is a serious piece of construction. Brick walls are eight feet thick at the bottom tapering to two feet thick at the top. In the days long gone when blue uniformed lighthouse keepers keep things going they walked these stairs several times day and night.
What the shirt neglects to mention is that there are also 203 steps going DOWN, making a total of 406 spiraling stairs. Gasp!
No, they don’t give you a shirt. I bought it as a reward.
Florida lighthouses – a long climb to the view at the top
You see I am afraid of heights and claustrophobic. So what was I doing climbing the tallest lighthouse in Florida? Overcoming fears and knowing the only way to see the great view is to get up there. In the grand view of things, I’d rather be challenged climbing up a lighthouse than hanging off ropes in a ropes course for character building or whatever it is called.
Oh, and there was a video crew from Visit Florida following me wheezing up the spiral stairs. Yes, your Authentic Florida expert at work. The video on Florida lighthouses will be up on their site in a few weeks. Check out Visitflorida.com then click on Authentic.
Every landing there is a window and sometimes a ledge to sit on. While pretending to admire the view, I am actually trying to get breathing back to semi-normal. The windows have transoms that open allowing air inside, a really good idea.
I know doing this deed is not right up there with climbing Mount Everest or biking across the United States, but there is a rush to doing something difficult and succeeding. And when you see kids prancing up the stairs and down again, it becomes a matter of pride not to be bested by the younger set.
This lighthouse has a museum on the grounds that houses Fresnel lenses. To me they are amazing works of art – specially cut pieces of glass meant to magnify a small light (in the beginning given off by kerosene lantern) into a big light that can be seen by mariners 20 miles out to sea.
The Coast Guard deactivated the light in 1970. A Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Association started in 1972. They maintain and restore the Lighthouse and grounds. The town of Ponce Inlet bought the lighthouse from the Coast Guard.
When you step inside the white picket fence, everything inside the picket fence dates from 1887 when the lighthouse opened. Museum staff restored the 1933 Rotating Third Order Fresnel lens and had it reinstalled. It gives out the signal from that era, but it is a private aid to navigation not a regular Coast Guard approved beacon.
Of course, all that work means you’ve earned lunch too. Ask the staff where locals do lunch. They have several very good suggestions close by involving inlet views and seafood.
Florida lighthouses are an example of heritage travel
Florida has 33 lighthouses. You can work your way through the Lighthouse Trail. Click on this link to Amazon to see the book about the trail. So far I’ve climbed St. Augustine Lighthouse, Cape Florida Lighthouse at Key Biscayne (with my son Martin) and now Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse. Only a zillion more stairs to go.
Lucy Beebe Tobias is the author of “50 Great Walks in Florida” published by University Press of Florida, February, 2008. You can buy the book (and get it signed by the author) at her Web site. She climbed two lighthouses while researching the book. Lucy also is the Authentic Florida expert for Visit Florida.
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