Tillamook Rock Lighthouse was built on a bare stone pillar hammered constantly by the Pacific Ocean. Construction crews had to leap from boats onto the rock and be winched up through crashing waves.

Dave White brought up an interesting question in the wake of the story about Tillamook Rock lighthouse keeper Louis Sauer, who went insane on the rock in 1890 and threatened to kill the other keepers.

Early lighthouse lenses, which could weigh thousands of pounds, were floated on beds of mercury that allowed them to turn in their signature flash patterns. For hundreds of years, lighthouse keepers ...