Article • Cape Hatteras Lighthouse - Panoramic Tour

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Panoramas - Middle Levels

Cape Hatteras Landing 3

On Landing 3, there is a brick barrel-vaulted alcove leading to a window that faces south. The floor is black and white marble laid in a checkerboard pattern. A red-painted, cast iron spiral staircase leading up to Landing 4 is visible at the perimeter of the cylindrical interior brick wall, which is painted white. Attached at the landing edge is a vertical cast iron rail system for guiding the weights that turned the original light.

HDP/Paul Davidson

Cape Hatteras Landing 4

On Landing 4, there is a brick barrel-vaulted alcove leading to a window that faces north. A sign on the wall indicates that this is the halfway point to the top of the lighthouse. The floor is black and white marble laid in a checkerboard pattern. A red-painted, cast iron spiral staircase leading up to Landing 5 is visible at the perimeter of the cylindrical interior brick wall, which is painted white. Attached at the landing edge is a vertical cast iron rail system for guiding the weights that turned the original light. The lighthouse keepers that were responsible for maintaining and operating the lighthouse would carry two 5-gallon containers of fuel to the top by hand every single day. These landings were nice spots for those keepers to stop and take breaks on their way up to the top of the lighthouse.

HDP/Paul Davidson

Cape Hatteras Landing 5

On the Landing 5, there is a brick barrel-vaulted alcove leading to a window that faces south. From this height, the ocean and Cape Point are coming into view from the window. The floor is black and white marble laid in a checkerboard pattern. A red-painted, cast iron spiral staircase leading up to Landing 6 is visible at the perimeter of the cylindrical interior brick wall, which is painted white. Attached at the landing edge is a vertical cast iron rail system for guiding the weights that turned the original light.

HDP/Paul Davidson

Cape Hatteras Landing 6

As you ascend the Lighthouse the window alcoves become shallower at each landing. This is because the lighthouse is made up of two walls, an inner wall which is plumb and an outer wall which tapers. It is at this landing where those 2 walls join to form a solid wall the remainder of the way up the lighthouse. On Landing 6, the floor is black and white marble, laid in a checkerboard pattern, with a wall height window that faces south. The floor is black and white marble laid in a checkerboard pattern. A red-painted, cast iron spiral staircase leading up to Landing 7 is visible at the perimeter of the cylindrical interior brick wall, which is painted white. Attached at the landing edge is a vertical cast iron rail system for guiding the weights that turned the original light.

HDP/Paul Davidson

Cape Hatteras Landing 7

On Landing 7, the floor is black and white marble laid in a checkerboard pattern, with a wall height window that faces south. A red-painted, cast iron spiral staircase leading up to Landing 8 is visible at the perimeter of the cylindrical interior brick wall, which is painted white. Attached at the landing edge is a vertical cast iron rail system for guiding the weights that turned the original light.

HDP/Paul Davidson