The Ragged Point Light was a screw-pile lighthouse

Screw-pile lighthouse

A screw-pile lighthouse is a lighthouse which stands on piles that are screwed into sandy or muddy sea or river bottoms. The first screw-pile lighthouse was built by blind Irish engineer Alexander Mitchell...

 located in the Potomac River

Potomac River

The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...

. It was the last lighthouse built in Maryland waters and the last built at a location in the Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

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History

The first request for a light at Ragged Point was made in 1896; funds were not appropriated, however, until 1906, and construction did not begin until an additional $5000 was appropriated. Construction finally began in 1910, and the light was commissioned in March of that year. It was the last lighthouse erected in Maryland.

In the early 1960s the light was strafed by planes on a training mission from the Patuxent Naval Air Station. The keepers were able to wave off the pilots, who had thought the light vacant. In 1962 the house was dismantled and a tower constructed on the old foundation.