A very very strong lighthouse The area around the Piscataqua River and Portsmouth Harbor is a treacherous place. Lots of strong and unpredictable currents, huge rocks and wild storms. So it was decided long ago that a lighthouse to mark the area might be a wise idea. So a light at the entrance of the harbor was first built in 1829. Unfortunately the builder was a scoundrel and constructed a really flimsy thing that shook every time the wind blew. Everyone was surprised that it lasted for almost 40 years. But it was obvious that the crappy lighthouse wasn’t going to last much longer so a new one was built to replace it. The new builders decided that their lighthouse wasn’t going to fall apart so they used a very expensive and time consuming method of dovetailed blocks of granite to construct it. Not many lighthouses are built like this because of the cost and difficulties of building them but once the blocks of granite are fitted together they aren’t going anywhere. Whaleback is about 50 feet tall and had a 4th order Fresnel Lens that was removed when it was automated in 1963. Like most Fresnel Lens I couldn’t find out what happen to it and the priceless lens might be sitting in someones garage. The lighthouse still stoical sits out in the harbor and occasionally huge waves do break over the top and break a window or cause some minor damage but the lighthouse itself just yawns at anything nature or time can throw at it. Whaleback is a light that is going to be around for a long, long time.
