Großer Vogelsand lighthouse

The lighthouse stands in the outer Elbe estuary on the sandbank called Großer Vogelsand. It was built in the early 1970s to mark the deep-water channel and several side channels of the Elbe. Three precision sector lights, a rotating lens and a belt optic guided ships through shifting sands. The tower became unnecessary when the main channel moved and newer technology took over. After 24 years it was switched off in 1998, though its foghorn kept sounding until 2004. The top section, weighing 250 tonnes, was removed in 2008 and later set up on the yard of a hostel in Bremerhaven. Visitors can still see the relocated lantern on dry land. A plain steel tube now marks the spot where the tower once stood in the water. The site is quiet, with only the sound of wind and distant shipping. The nearby sandbank shifts with every tide, leaving little trace of the old structure below the waves.