Apo Reef Light
The first lighthouse tower on Apo Reef.
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 Philippines
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| Location | Apo Reef Natural Park, Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro, Philippines |
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| Coordinates | 12°39′41.3″N 120°24′52.5″E / 12.661472°N 120.414583°ECoordinates: 12°39′41.3″N 120°24′52.5″E / 12.661472°N 120.414583°E |
| Year first constructed | 1906 (first) |
| Year first lit | ? (current) |
| Deactivated | n/a |
| Foundation | concrete foundation |
| Construction | metal skeletal tower (first) reinforced concrete tower (current) |
| Tower shape | hexagonal skeletal frame tower with central cylinder and galleries (first) octagonal prism skeletal surmounted by a square prism tower with two balconies ans no lantern (current) |
| Markings / pattern | black tower with white three-tiered top (first) white tower (current) |
| Height | 36 metres (118 ft) |
| Focal height | 40.8 metres (134 ft) |
| Original lens | Third-order Fresnel lens |
| Range | 17 nautical miles (31 km; 20 mi) |
| Characteristic | Al WR 10s.(firstl) Fl W 10s. (current) |
| Fog signal | none |
| Admiralty number | F2574 |
| NGA number | 14492 |
| ARLHS number | PHI-002 |
The Apo Reef Light was a historic lighthouse built on Bajo Apo Island in Apo Reef Natural Park. The park is located in the middle of Mindoro Strait, west of the province of Occidental Mindoro, in the Philippines. The station was established to warn ships of the dangerous shallow reefs in that part of the strait.
The original tower was the tallest lighthouse tower ever erected in the Philippines. The 118-ft (36.0-m) tall structure was an iron skeletal tower with a central cylinder, reinforced by a hexagonal frame and topped with the lantern room with two levels of gallery.
The light station on Apo Reef was part of the first approved group of lighthouses in the Maritime Lighting Plan of Spain for the Philippine Archipelago during the Spanish Colonial Period. It was proposed to erect a steel tower with a third-order light on Bajo Apo Island. In 1896, the tower and the lighting apparatus were already purchased complete by the Spanish authorities from France, and they were delivered and stored at the warehouse in Manila. All lighthouse constructions though, were halted with the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution and then the Spanish–American War.
When the Americans took control of the Philippines, all the Spanish plans and records were turned over to the United States. In 1903, the Bureau of Lighthouse Construction proposed to continue the construction of the third-order light on Bajo Apo Island. The tower was found in excellent condition at the warehouse by the Americans together with the tower for Capitancillo Islet in Bogo City, Cebu. A survey party was sent to the station in November 1903 for the topographical surveying of the Island as no work has ever been attempted yet by the Spaniards on this station—unlike in Tanguingui Island or Capitancillo Island where some construction has already been started.
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Wikipedia