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Cape
Hatteras is a cape on the coast of North Carolina. It is the point that
protrudes the farthest to the southeast along the northeast-to-southwest
line of the Atlantic coast of North America. So many ships have been lost
off Cape Hatteras that the area is known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic".
The cape is actually a bend in Hatteras Island. The first lighthouse at
the cape was
built in 1803. It was replaced by the current Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
in 1870. The tallest lighthouse in the United States at 198.48 feet. The
eroding shoreline threatened the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse,and it was was
lifted and moved inland a distance of 2900 feet. Its distance from the
seashore is now 1500 feet, about the same as when it was originally built.
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is actually in Buxton, the local business hub for Hatteras Island . The name Hatteras is the sixth oldest surviving English place-name in the U.S. An inlet north of the cape was named "Hatteras" in 1585 by Sir Richard Grenville. It was later applied to the island and cape as well, and modified to "Hatteras.