We visited friends in Charleston, SC, in March of 1999 and they were good enough to drive us all over town to see the two lighthouses located there. Morris Island Light is the abandoned lighthouse that seems to float out in the harbor and can be seen from the northern end of Folly Island, below Charleston. We took this picture from the path that leads to the beach and, from that perspective, it almost looks like it is sitting on the beach. But when we got closer we took the picture below, as it truly is, sitting on Morris Island which is submerged under water even at low tide. There is a local effort to preserve this light before it topples into the water of the harbor. Information on the preservation can be found in a recent Lighthouse Digest article and at the savethelight.org site.

We could see the new Charleston Lighthouse from the beach and, if you squint, you can see it on the far shore in the picture below. The light was lit that day and we could see the flash from the tower every 28 seconds or so. It was a hazy day so the tower isn't real obvious in the picture but it's there, near the righthand side, white on the bottom, black on top, just above the horizon of the ocean.

We left Folly Beach and drove across town to Sullivan Island where the new modern lighthouse stands. It's operated by the Coast Guard and had a fence all around it so we couldn't get too close. This light is triangular in shape, painted black on the top and white on the bottom, with windows up one of the sides. It even has an elevator in it. I would have loved to taken a ride to the top in that! We took some pictures from the road but there are so many buildings around the light that I thought would be a distraction in the finished pictures. So we went out onto the beach and took a few pictures from that direction and they are much better, the sand and foliage from that direction framed the light much nicer.

The lights in Charleston are interesting but it's a shame that we couldn't climb up either one. Even though my legs scream at me for climbing up the tall towers, that's one of the things I like most about visiting lighthouses - climbing to the top. I guess I'll just have to plan my next lighthouse adventure around a light that is open to the public.

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