Sharps Island Light

Talbot County, United States

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The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.

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Located nearly three miles south-southwest of Tilghman Island in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay, Sharps Island Light is the third lighthouse to occupy this strategically important site in Talbot County. Built by the Builder's Iron Company of Providence, Rhode Island, and constructed by 5th Lighthouse District Engineer O. E. Babcock and his staff, the structure consists of a cylindrical cast-iron caisson 30 feet in diameter and height, sunk approximately 10 feet into the bay floor and filled with concrete to withstand wave and ice pressure, topped by a 45-foot cast-iron tower tapering from 18 feet in diameter at its base to 12 feet at the top. The lighthouse is now best known for its pronounced lean toward the Chesapeake, caused by an ice floe that struck it in 1977—a dramatic similarity to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The third light replaced its predecessor, a screwpile lighthouse from 1866 that was famously dislodged by ice in 1881 and floated five miles downbay with its keepers still aboard before grounding safely.

Type: lighthouse, inclined tower
Heritage: National Register of Historic Places listed place
Place: Talbot County, United States

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Location

38.63910, -76.37570