Skip to main content

US 80 and Tybee Island

Image
By
After making its way through a plethora of states throughout the Deep South, US 80 finishes its eastbound journey some 18 miles east of downtown Savannah, Georgia on a barrier island called Tybee Island. The beach town of Tybee Island, where the Savannah River meets the Atlantic Ocean, offers a nice ceremonious end to a highway once had its other end in San Diego, California. In addition to the usual trimmings that a beach town affords, such as sandy beaches and various shops, you can also enhance your visit to the eastern end of US 80 by checking out the historic forts and lighthouses on or around Tybee Island.

US 80's other end is now in Mesquite, Texas, just outside of Dallas.

Heading west on US 80 in Tybee Island. From the main drag, Tybee Island looks like a pretty typical beach town.
---
One of the more famous sights in Tybee Island, even more famous than US 80's eastern end, is located just a few blocks away from US 80. It is the Tybee Island Lighthouse, which opened in 1916 as the most recent incarnation of lighthouses on Tybee Island. A lighthouse at Tybee Island was first ordered by Governor James Oglethorpe of the Georgia colony in 1732, to help guide ships into the Savannah River. The Tybee Island Light is the tallest lighthouse in the great state of Georgia and it takes 178 steps to climb to the top of the lighthouse. Over time, events such as coastal erosion and even destruction by fire of the lighthouse by Confederate troops during the Civil War were catalysts for new lighthouses being built at Tybee Island. I didn't get a chance to go up the lighthouse or visit the lighthouse's museum that day, but I managed to get some nice photos of the Tybee Island Light.

Tybee Island Light and associated grounds.

A close-up of the lighthouse.
---
Across the street from the Tybee Island Lighthouse is Fort Screven, one of Georgia's coastal forts (Fort Pulaski on nearby Cockspur Island is another). Fort Screven was named after American Revolution hero Brigadier General James Screven, who died in battle in 1778. The construction of a fort at Tybee Island was first authorized by the Georgia legislature in 1786, but various forts and batteries have been in place throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries. A small round fort known as a Martello tower was in place in 1815 and saw action during the Civil War. It was replaced with a fort now known as Fort Screven in time for the Spanish American War. The fort was phased out after World War II. Fort Screven is now a museum and a few of the batteries are open to the public to view and to explore.

Battery Garland, one of the publicly accessible batteries of Fort Screven.

The main part of Fort Screven. It now houses a museum.

Fort Screven historical marker.

Artillery at Fort Screven.


Sources and Links:
Tybee Island GA - Savannah's Beach
Tybee Island Historical Society - Tybee Island Light Station and Museum
Lighthouse Friends - Tybee Island Lighthouse
Flickr - Tybee Island Lighthouse photos by Doug Kerr
ExploreSouthernHistory - Fort Screven Historic District
Flickr - Fort Screven photos by Doug Kerr

How to Get There
Labels:
Location: Tybee Island, GA 31328, USA

Comments

Don Davies said…
I am a huge admirer of your blog! I started an Instagram account dedicated to Tybee Island's lighthouses! I'm planning a trip back to Tybee Island in September 2022 and have already discovered numerous lighthouses I've never seen before on https://visittybee.com/article/history-of-tybee-island-lighthouse and I'm so excited to get some IG-worthy photos!
4:32 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paper Highways: The Unbuilt New Orleans Bypass (Proposed I-410)

By
  There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population.  The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t
Post a Comment
Read more

Hernando de Soto Bridge (Memphis, TN)

By
The newest of the bridges that span the lower Mississippi River at Memphis, the Hernando de Soto Bridge was completed in 1973 and carries Interstate 40 between downtown Memphis and West Memphis, AR. The bridge’s signature M-shaped superstructure makes it an instantly recognizable landmark in the city and one of the most visually unique bridges on the Mississippi River. As early as 1953, Memphis city planners recommended the construction of a second highway bridge across the Mississippi River to connect the city with West Memphis, AR. The Memphis & Arkansas Bridge had been completed only four years earlier a couple miles downriver from downtown, however it was expected that long-term growth in the metro area would warrant the construction of an additional bridge, the fourth crossing of the Mississippi River to be built at Memphis, in the not-too-distant future. Unlike the previous three Mississippi River bridges to be built the city, the location chosen for this bridge was about two
1 comment
Read more

Huey P. Long Bridge (New Orleans, LA)

By
Located on the lower Mississippi River a few miles west of New Orleans, the Huey P. Long Bridge is an enormous steel truss bridge that carries both road and rail traffic on an old-time structure that is a fascinating example of a bridge that has evolved in recent years to meet the traffic and safety demands of modern times. While officially located in suburban Jefferson Parish near the unincorporated community of Bridge City, this bridge’s location is most often associated with New Orleans, given that it’s the largest and most recognizable incorporated population center in the nearby vicinity. For this reason, this blog article considers the bridge’s location to be in New Orleans, even though this isn’t 100% geographically correct. Completed in 1935 as the first bridge across the Mississippi River in Louisiana and the first to be built in the New Orleans area, this bridge is one of two bridges on the Mississippi named for Huey P. Long, a Louisiana politician who served as the 40th Gove
1 comment
Read more