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HISTORY OF BIG SUR COAST

  A new dawn:              Locals had long called for a road along the coast to aid shipwreck victims and improve access to isolated communities.  Construction started in 1919, and 18 years, 32 tonnes of dynamite and 33 bridges later, the Big Sur stretch of California Highway One was complete.               The implausible route, with its myriad twists and turns and dramatic drop-offs, became an instant classic.  The author and painter Henry Miller fled to Big Sur in 1944 and stayed for nearly two decades.  Photographer Edward Weston and Beat Generation bard Jack Kerouac fell under its spell.  By the late 1960’s San Francisco’s counterculture revolution had swept down to Big Sur, and the likes of Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell performed on the cliff tops.              ...
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BELL ROCK LIGHTHOUSE - SCOTLAND

 
Bell Rock Lighthouse:

Bell Rock Lighthouse

               Against daunting odds, this elegant lighthouse was built miles offshore on a treacherous reef that is uncovered only at low tide.  It is the oldest sea-washed lighthouse operating in the world.

               Since 1811, the lamps of the Bell Rock Lighthouse have warned North Sea sailors off the east coast of Scotland to beware the infamous sunken reef known as the Bell Rock.  Building on top of that rock was fraught with difficulties and danger.  The rock is 12 miles (19 km) off the coast in the fierce North Sea, and completely submerged except for a few hours each day.

                That the Bell Rock Lighthouse has endured the constant assault of the waves for 200 years without any significant deterioration to is masonry is testimony to the genius of Scottish engineer Robert Stevenson and a tribute to the masons, joiners, smiths, mould-makers, stonecutters and carpenters who, with unsurpassed skill and courage, and at great personal risk, undertook its construction over four years.

Where on Earth?

                 Bell Rock Lighthouse stands on the Inchcape Reef in the North Sea, above 22km (12 nautical miles) southeast of Arbroath, Scotland.  Conditions are too dangerous for visitors to land on the rock, but it is possible to charter a boat or join a fishing excursion from Arbroath to cruise within sight of the lighthouse.

Light-saving light:

             At high tides, the tower appears to rise magically straight from the sea: there is no hint of the razor-like rocks that lie a few feet below.  The sloping base was designed to deflect the force of the waves.


Location: United Kingdom

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