Special places: Lighthouses
Lighthouses for aeroplanes
Concrete arrows and the US airmail beacon system is a post on the Sometimes interesting blog describing a system that has left strange concrete arrows across the American landscape. In contrast to marine lighthouses which have stood for centuries and are still lit every night, these aerial navigation aids had a short service life.
In 1924 the US Postal Service began to build a network of giant concrete arrows which pilots could see from the air during daylight, with flashing lights on towers for night navigation. By 1933 radio direction-finding systems had been developed, and the beacon system became obsolete.»more»
Seeing the light: lighthouses of the western Great Lakes
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Terry Pepper has assembled a rich history, gallery and gazetteer of this remarkable collection of inland lighthouses.
These sentinels and their dedicated keepers performed a critical service to mariners. With the survival of some these majestic beacons in question, it is our intent to tell their story as accurately as possible, in the hope that increased understanding of their purpose and rich history will help assure their survival for future generations to enjoy as much as we have. — Terry Pepper [from the website].»more»
Life at the end of the road
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Students and teachers from the University of North Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Universidad de los Andes went to Patagonia, and made this bilingual web documentary. Photographs, video, audio and graphics introduce the land, sea and people of the southernmost tip of America.
There is a lot of rich material here - video interviews with ranchers, a virtual reality tour of a mansion in Punta Arenas, and dozens of other stories. To my delight there is video footage, with crew interviews, of a Chilean Navy ship bringing a fresh crew of lighthouse keepers to Faro Islas Diego Ramirez - an offshore lighthouse to the south of Cape Horn.
»more»Lighthouses of Australia
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A collection of images, facts and stories maintained by Malcolm Macdonald with other members of Lighthouses of Australia Inc.
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