This abundantly illustrated book conveys the romance and beauty of lighthouses and beacons while explaining the development of the forms, materials, architecture and engineering of their structure: wood, masonry, cast-iron plate, on- and off-shore skeletal, caisson and reinforced concrete. It covers lighthouses from all parts of the United States from the late Eighteenth Century to the 1940s, when control of the lighthouses was transferred to the Coast Guard and after which few new ones were constructed. Images of lighthouses from coast to coast provide examples of striking design and setting, as well as celebrating technological achievement and the work of important engineers include associated structures, such as keepers’ quarters, fog signal buildings, boathouses and boat railroads, cistern buildings, barns and workshops, as well as interiors and working details of the light mechanisms.