A 60-Meter Lighthouse Was Moved Entirely

As the sea encroached right up to the lighthouse, people decided to move the entire structure back instead of trying to block the ocean further. This is the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in the US, standing over 60 meters tall and weighing more than 4,000 tons. Continued coastal erosion could have washed away the sand around its foundation, potentially destabilizing the freshwater environment where the timber supporting the foundation was placed. Engineers detached the lighthouse from its base, inserted a massive steel framework underneath, and lifted it about 1.8 meters using hydraulic jacks. The challenge was that even a slight shift in weight could cause cracks in the old brick tower. To manage this, they divided the hydraulic jacks into three sections to maintain level, monitored the load and tilt with 60 sensors, and moved it approximately 1.5 meters at a time. Over 23 days, they moved it about 884 meters to its new foundation.