Map Search    Florida Department of State « Previous    Visit a Lighthouse Alligator Reef Amelia Island American Shoal Anclote Key Boca Grande Cape Canaveral Cape Florida Cape San Blas Cape St. George Carysfort Reef Cedar Keys Crooked River Egmont Key Fowey Rocks Garden Key Gilbert's Bar House of Refuge Museum Hillsboro Inlet Jupiter Inlet Key West Loggerhead Key Pensacola Ponce de Leon Inlet Port Boca Grande Sand Key Sanibel Island Sombrero Key St. Augustine St. Johns Light Ship St. Johns Light Station St. Johns River St. Joseph Bay St. Marks ->Maritime Trail Home ->Lighthouses Home    Next » Sombrero Key Photo courtesy of the National Park Service.     Sombrero Key Lighthouse is situated on the reef near Marathon in the Florida Keys. Originally named by the Spanish sometime before 1760, Sombrero Key eroded over time and no longer exists. George Meade, later a Union general in the Civil War, selected this site for a lighthouse but a hurricane in 1856 destroyed the temporary construction platform. The lighthouse finally was completed in 1858. Keepers of this light suffered more accidents than at any other Florida lighthouse, including deaths in 1873, 1889, 1893 and 1959. The reef light stands 160 feet over the water. It is closed to the public, but the Key West Lighthouse Museum displays Sombrero Key Lighthouse's first-order Fresnel lens. Find out more: Additional Links: View more pictures of the Sombrero Key Lighthouse View a map of the Sombrero Key Lighthouse Communities | Environments | Forts | Lighthouses | Ports | Shipwrecks | Home The Florida Maritime Heritage Trail was created and is maintained by the Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources, with initial funding by Florida Coastal Management Program. Send comments to: [email protected]