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The first navigational lights in the New World were probably lanterns hung at harbor entrances. The first lighthouse was put up bythe Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1716 on Little Brewster Island at the entranceto Boston Harbor. Paid for and maintained by light dues leviedon ships, the original beacon was blown up in 1776. By then there wereonly a dozen or so true lighthouses in the colonies. Little over a centurylater, there were 700 lighthouses. The first light erected on the West Coast in the1850s featured the same basic New England design: a Cape Cod dwellingwith the tower rising from the center or standing close by. In NewEngland and elsewhere, though, lighthouses reflecteda variety of architectural styles. Since most stations in the Northeastwere built on rocky eminences, enormous towers were not the rule. Somewere made of stone and brick, others of wood or metal. Some stood onpilings or stilts; some were fastened to rock with iron rods. Farther south,from Maryland through the Florida Keys, the coast was low and sandy. Itwas often necessary to build tall towers there - massivestructures like the majestic Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, lighthouse,which was lit in 1870. At 190 feet, it is the tallest brick lighthouse inthe country. Notwithstanding differences in appearance and construction, most American lighthouses shared several features: a light, living quarters andsometimes a bell .They also had something else incommon: a keeper and, usually, the keepers family.The keepers essential task was trimming the lantern wick in order to maintain a steady, bright flame. Theearliest keepers came from every walk of life - they were seamen,farmers, mechanics, rough mill hands - and appointments were oftenhanded out by local customs commissioners as political plums. After theadministration of lighthouses was taken over in 1852 bythe United States Lighthouse Board, an agency of the Treasury Department,the keeper corps gradually became highly professional. | 
