The men who built this American Shoal lighthouse used Key West as their base of operations even though it was nineteen miles away. Other islands were nearer, but Key West had the accommodations that other islands lacked. There were no roads or railways connecting the Florida Keys at that time, and nothing was accomplished easily. As was the case for some of the other reef lights, a temporary platform was first built using local lumber from locally harvested mangrove trees. Materials were hauled to the site in a steam-powered vessel along with the men, and iron pilings were pounded into the coral an inch at a time with a steam-powered pile driver. Delays could last for days and even weeks because of rough seas. And there were no telephones to check on that order of bolts that hadn’t yet arrived from Philadelphia, either.

The American Shoal lighthouse was automated in 1963, marking the end of an era: lighthouse keeping as it had been practiced for over one hundred years. The Coast Guard regularly services the light in the 109-foot-tall lighthouse, but private contractors are now hired to scrape, paint, and maintain the ironwork. If parts need to be replaced, the Coast Guard’s civil engineers fabricate them using original blueprints. It is a constant maintenance vigil to battle vandalism and nature. Strange as it may seem, even though the American Shoal Lighthouse stands seven miles from the nearest land, termites have taken their toll on the interior of the keepers’ quarters.