"The Cape Light: Away from the Edge"

Workers take on the mammoth task of moving the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the world's tallest brick lighthouse. This was the second high definition ever produced by a local TV station. Bill Leslie hosts. This originally aired on WRAL-TV on September 4, 1999.
Check out our collection of documentaries on our WRAL Documentary Channel! Link here: / @wraldocs

[@1959blee]

We vacation in OBX every year for 30 years in the fall. Saw how the ocean crept closer to this precious icon with broken hearts before the move. Watched with concern the move. Cheered at the new location. God bless every one who saw the importance of making this happen and those who actually made it happen. What an amazing feat of engineering. Can’t wait to get there again this year 😁Thank you!

[@skeggjoldgunnr3167]

I lived about 75 miles inland - I was a welder. I had done some work for a geological engineering firm for a couple years already (field-welding their swamp track vehicle drill rig on a few occasions - they had been mapping a route for a planned highway, testing the ground). They referred me to this outfit that was moving the lighthouse - they were on-site testing that the ground could handle the move.. I got a call at my shop one morning asking me if I could come out and weld up the strong-back beams on-site. I was so excited and I felt so honored. That lighthouse means so much to me as an Eastern North Carolina native. So. right there inside that plastic fenced-in area - those are some of the S-beams I welded plates on top of the flanges of. Many very skilled people went into this project. Many of the people in these crews had already moved many huge heavy things. I knew they would get it done just fine. I was told they used a laser up top, pointing down to monitor tilt. I could not afford to stick around to watch paint dry or to watch that lighthouse move so slowly. I missed all the excitement. I still have yet to see her in her new location.

[@crixxxxxxxxx]

What clueless people who complained about it being moved. They didn't want the lighthouse moved because they said it would ruin history, yet they were willing to keep it in immediate danger of being completely destroyed.

[@shirleycole7854]

I'm so glad that they saved this beautiful old lighthouse

[@matthewisaias9906]

A tip : you can watch movies on Flixzone. Been using them for watching loads of movies recently.

[@axlerick4456]

@Matthew Isaias Definitely, I've been watching on Flixzone for years myself :)

[@dennisstafford7801]

Just visited this lighthouse, truly one of the most impressive things to see in person, the history and story behind it are truly amazing, just blows my mind to think how many ships and lives have been saved by this light.

[@BALOYBEACHBUM]

My 20 years in the Navy, that light told us we would be home soon, as we returned to Norfolk Naval Base. I am glad to see it moved and saved for my fellow Shipmates in the next 20 years! THANK YOU! SALUTE!!

[@lindaborgert589]

We were there in 2002. I have a VHS tape of the move. All those people who didn’t want it moved are just ridiculous. Why let it fall into the ocean?

[@mr1962me]

Amazing that something that big could be moved. WOW

[@LasVegas68]

Man oh Man! Been up that old Lighthouse more times than I can remember since I was a kid! I love Cape Hatteras and it will always be my favorite beach to go to! Too bad the Hurricanes beat that part of the coastline up so bad.

[@victoriateague9012]

I think this is great. To make sure no history is lost. 😊Plus I love History and lighthouses.💖

[@lindaborgert589]

Me, too!

[@christophersmith2068]

I used to climb that lighthouse when I was young. This place has some history.

[@dougthompson5586]

they left the door unlocked at night when I lived there

[@wiktoriawikiz.5807]

CZŁOWIEK jest wielki, następny po Bogu !

[@JrMartin423]

I wonder what all the nay sayers think now that it’s moved and still standing after 20 plus more years. The history is in the lighthouse, not the land. And it also amazes me how many normal Americans think tradesman are a bunch of bumbling idiots that don’t know what we are doing. We’re professionals for a reason and that’s why we are trusted and hired to build grand buildings. Without us everyone would still be working and living in mud huts.

[@tracypaxton1054]

Yes, and thank you for it all.

[@jessicareyes7762]

Love theses type of videos keep up the good work

[@sandrarobert1456]

this is my favorite lighthouse I am enjoying every moment 0f this scenery. All you need is to listen to venture highway by amercia. thank you for sharing.

[@Shipfixer]

Ol' Buddy McDaniel didn't seem to have much smarts. He had no clue that if left standing where it was, the sea would soon take it. How can some people be so backwards in their thinking.

[@DustinDawind]

Why wasn't the guy chipping away at the rock with a chisel wearing safety glasses?

[@bricklayers88]

That's how they do it in right to work states lol.

[@victoriateague9012]

Lighthouses calm me.

[@an04ker]

The bloke fitting the shingles sounds like a nutcase😂

[@victoriateague9012]

Made me cry.😪😘

[@IcelanderUSer]

What made you cry? Moving a lighthouse? Are you kidding? You must love trump too. 👼🏾🧖🏾‍♀️

[@wallacewithoutgromit]

Reply to Donald Thomas: Colliding ocean currents created Cape Hatteras. The light house is there because the ocean currents and hurricanes beat up a lot of ships. Google up National Sailing Hall of Fame. Its in Annapolis, Maryland. On their home page go to video or film library. Scroll down to picture of clipper ship wrecked on rocks. Chick in Ghosts of Cape Horn narrated by the late actor, Jason Robards. All I can say is you won't forget a minute of it.

[@davidrobinson4486]

I tried to find it, the hall has moved to Newport, R.I. with a new website

[@davidrobinson4486]

Found it on you tube, thanks!

[@victoriateague9012]

A lighthouse built upon sand cannot stand.😉

[@lindaborgert589]

Very true!

[@johnsoncoleman593]

pretty informative if you can get past the cornball script, narration and music.

[@Contrafactum]

Especially ten minutes of a crappy song. Still a great effort.

[@wiktoriawikiz.5807]

Tylko zjednoczeni ludzie będą w stanie pokonać ZŁO !

[@MrSteve280]

I came away from this film with two strong feelings. First, the unimaginable difficulty of having built it without power equipment, electricity, trucks, or even decent roads and yet to have built it so well. Second, that you can find people who actually live there that would have rather seen it fall into the ocean than save it. And those are the same hypocrites that have so willingly embraced power equipment, electricity, trucks, and roads along with millions of tourist dollars without blinking an eye.

[@joesmoe71]

I don't get it either other than they like blowing smoke out their own asses just for the sake of doing so. It WOULD have fallen eventually, probably not all that long in the future, that's a fact and all the sanctimonious hand-wringing in the world wouldn't have stopped it. Yet they think standing around stomping their feet while it did so rather than at least trying to save it was some kind of virtue? Bullshit. If they had been there when it was first built they would have bitched about that too and how it would have changed the beach, we wouldn't have even made it out of the caves if it was left up to people like that.

[@skipsassy1]

radar

[@dangerousdon7750]

idiots saying it been part of our lives, it the soul. but would rather see it destroyed than see it moved ?

[@skipsassy1]

Radar removed it's purpose during WWII. But tourism is money - that's the money that moves it, not preserving history. Paychecks are the messy part.

[@PerthTowne]

Preserving a beautiful old lighthouse is about more than just tourist money for many people.

[@IcelanderUSer]

They should have just blown it up and built a parking lot. Think of all the views on KZbin watching it fall over. What was the reason for moving it? Why had the water gotten so close?

[@Punninator1]

@@IcelanderUSer Bless your heart...

[@lindaborgert589]

@@IcelanderUSer It’s called erosion. The ocean takes back its own.

[@braydenmcneal6709]

Obx doesn’t really get enough tourism to move it even though it is true. Some of it was money but a lot of it was because of the history.

[@dbec5224]

talk about making a meal of it this could have been 12 mins long

[@stevegreen9460]

well thay made light work of that....

[@mikefromflorida8357]

A nice and meaningful topic, but my word, the production has been dragged out to the limits of patience. This could have been a very nice twenty minute production.

[@paulcowell7588]

As a lay person I find this massively impressive...I don't think any other nation can do this.

[@IcelanderUSer]

Are you kidding? China has built cities of 20 million people with hundreds of subway stops and miles of track all within 20 years. America can’t even build one train tunnel of 2 miles in the same amount of time.

[@deanelydiard1846]

Really ,your sheer arrogance overrides your ignorance.

[@slimetime6449]

B bo idk man China is pretty trash at making stuff usable for awhile and USA has made better things

[@allenra530]

Those people who were so opposed to the moving sound like that idiot, Harry Truman, at Mount Saint Helens. He thought that he knew more than the USGS and insisted on staying at Spirit Lake as the mountain proceeded toward the final explosion. Wanting the light to stay where it was would doom it. Nature doesn't care a bit about people and their wants. The island will continue to erode and change whether people want it to or not. Eventually the light may have to be moved or lifted higher again because the sea will not stop. But for now it has been put in a safe place.

[@matthewbloh]

You know it's funny. I love the North Carolina Lighthouses and Mount Saint Helens. So I never thought the two would collide on a KZbin comment.

[@oilsmokejones3452]

Great, suffer through almost an hour of high school level attempts at alliteration and cornball metaphor to get about 20 seconds on the actual move...what a waste of tape...

[@zippy3711]

Cornball Title, cornball script, just move the dame thing.

[@anthonycurcio5018]

i was glad fedor won the fight against bruce lee.

[@leetrichell9175]

Is there a gender neutral bathroom on that lighthouse? lol