8. The victor of the Battle of Gettysburg was a builder of lighthouses
George Gordon Meade is most famous as the commander of the Union Army which emerged victorious in the 1863 Gettysburg campaign. Before the war he was heavily involved in the construction of lighthouses along the American east coast, as well as the development of new technology for the Lighthouse Board, which was roughly the American equivalent of Trinity House. Meade developed a hydraulic pump for use in lighthouses which eased the transfer of fuel, as well as improved safety when handling it, and which was adopted for all new American lighthouses. Among the many lighthouses he designed were Sombrero Key and Jupiter Inlet in Florida. He also was involved in the construction of several lighthouses in New Jersey, including Cape May Light and Absecon Light at Atlantic City.
Meade designed the 157 foot tall Cape May light, which was constructed under the supervision of the Army Corps of Engineers. It was the third lighthouse to be built at Cape May, steady erosion dictated the replacement of both of its predecessors. At Barnegat light, Meade built the lighthouse about 900 feet from the waterline at high tide, within a decade the waterline was half that distance away. Several jetties were constructed over the years to reduce the erosion and the encroachment of the sea. Despite the difficulties encountered during construction, Meade completed Barnegat Light under a budget of $40,000, an impressive achievement considering that the Fresnel lens alone was purchased at a cost of $15,000 of his construction funds. Barnegat Light was decommissioned in 1927 as a navigational aid.