Cape Henry Lighthouse was the first lighthouse commissioned by the First Congress of the United States of America.  American-born architect John McComb, Jr., was offered the contract.  Constructed of hammered-dressed Rappahannock sandstone ashlar, the tower is seventy-two feet high with a spread foundation of twenty feet deep.  Aquia stone was used on foundations, windows, and door surrounds. The octagon-shaped lighthouse, completed in October of 1791, took nineteen months to construct.