Light House

For centuries, the light house has been a steadfast way to show ships lost in the night how to find their way to shore. It has served as a beacon of hope and an indicator of existential life on dry ground. Essentially, a light house is a large tower built on the shoreline that emits large, rotating lights out into sea in order for ships to be able to see how to get to land. There are literally hundreds of lighthouses all over the world. The older ones are now usually used as tourist attractions or symbols of geographic areas. Most new lighthouses are not quite as ornate and intense looking as those that were built many years ago. Most people want to preserve the beauty of the light house, and keep on building it in the traditional, more original sense. For centuries, someone always stayed inside of the light house, and was known as the keeper. This person would practically live inside the light house, and maintain its bright beacon and be sure that sailors and captains made it to shore safely. Around the 1990’s, keepers suddenly became a thing of the past.

Today, with modern science giving us Global Positioning Systems, radar screens and computers, the light house is becoming a dying breed. Those that are still standing are essentially fully automated, meaning they do not need anyone there to operate or maintain them. Regardless of the light house’s newer status, it is still a brilliant symbol of hope and nautical days of yore. There are many historic light houses that remain a piece of history not just in America, but all over the world. Today the United States Coast Guard overlooks our lighthouses, while other organizations are in charge of lighthouses in other parts of the world.