Highland Light is an active lighthouse on the Cape Cod National Seashore. Located in North Truro, it was erected in 1857. The current tower replaced two earlier towers and was the first lighthouse and fog signal on Cape Cod, established by edict from George Washington.
During the Summer of 1996 the lighthouse was painstakingly moved on rails back hundreds of yards to save it from falling into the sea as the shoreline had eroded significantly since it was first built. A stone platform sits where the lighthouse once was.
Known to mariners as Cape Cod Light, in 1865 the famous Cape Cod writer, Thoreau, wrote that it was one of the first lighthouses that travelers from Europe would see as they entered Massachusetts harbor. It was turned into a tourist attraction in 2014 and guided tours are available to the general public during Summer.
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