Moving the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse: The 1999 “Move of the Millennium”

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, with its black-and-white spiral stripes, was built in 1870 at Buxton on Hatteras Island, North Carolina. It was the tallest brick structure of its day and is still the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States, a vital guide along a hazardous stretch of the Atlantic coast. It anchors the Cape Hatteras Light Station, with the Double Keepers’ Quarters, the Principal Keeper’s Quarters and the Oil House.

The Principal Keeper’s Quarters in 1893. NPS / Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

A shore on the move

The barrier islands of the Outer Banks have been creeping westward for thousands of years, as storms carry sand from the ocean side to the sound side. When the lighthouse was built it stood about 1,500–1,600 feet from the shoreline; by the 1970s the water was just 120 feet away.

Cape Hatteras from the air, December 1974. NPS.

Efforts to slow erosion began in the 1930s and continued in the 1960s, but the beach kept shrinking. In 1975 the lighthouse closed to the public after cracks appeared in the tower. In 1980, with the sea about 50 feet away, the Park Service began formal planning under the National Environmental Policy Act. Moving the tower was first considered and dismissed, and a seawall was chosen; later studies weighed strengthening jetties, a seawall around the lighthouse, or moving it inland.

The decision to move

In 1998 Congress funded relocation — judged the option with the least environmental impact and the best protection for the lighthouse, consistent with the Park Service’s duties to preserve history and protect the coast. The decision was hotly contested; many feared the tower would not survive.

Overview of the new site, the move path, and the old location of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on April 6, 1999. NPS.

The move

By 1999 the lighthouse stood just 15 feet from the shore. Crews lifted the 4,830-ton brick tower off its foundation onto a transport system of 400 tons of steel, hydraulic jacks and beams, and push jacks moved it five feet at a time along a steel track. Sixty sensors continuously measured tilt and vibration, and a weather station on top monitored conditions.

The lighthouse on its way, June 24, 1999. NPS.

The move took 23 days, from June 17 to July 9, 1999, carrying the lighthouse 2,900 feet to where it stands today. The station’s other buildings were moved too, keeping their original arrangement.

The Keepers’ Quarters on the move, 1999. NPS.

The lighthouse reopened on November 13, 1999, and the project won a national engineering award.

A glimpse of the move path from the light chamber atop the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on March 1st, 1999. NPS.

A model — and alternatives

Buildings had been moved before, but the Cape Hatteras relocation stands out for its scale and for how complex and controversial the decision was. Moving historic structures has since become more common, and preservationists now weigh a range of other strategies to protect vulnerable buildings, districts and landscapes from sea-level rise, flooding and erosion.

Sources

Based on "Landscapes of Change: Cape Hatteras Lighthouse," Cultural Landscapes Program, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. Pictures an earlier version of this page left out were restored on 2026-09-26.