Sunrise at Tybee Island.
I prefer Georgia's mountains to its flatter lands, but everyone likes to go to the beach sometimes. And when you go, Tybee Island is the place to go.
As every Georgian knows, you get to Tybee by taking U.S. Highway 80 from Savannah. U.S. 80 originally ran 2,538 miles from San Diego, California to the beach at Tybee Island, but now its western end is Dallas, Texas.
'Most everyone who thinks about Tybee thinks about the beach, of course, but the island includes a community of about3,000 more-or-less permanent residents. With all the tourists occupying the many hotels, motels, and rental condos, the population is probably double that at any given time. Needless to say, the town's main industry is tourism.
The Tybee Island Lighthouse is open for tours.
While you're on the island, be sure to see the Tybee Island Lighthouse and Fort Screven.
Completed in 1867, the lighthouse is 154 feet in height and is the fourth on this site, going back to 1736. The first two were wooden and did not survive long. The third tower was built of brick in 1773. When the Confederates abandoned Tybee Island, they attempted to blow it up with a keg of gunpowder, but its brick shell, twelve feet thick at the base, survived and forms the first 60 feet of the present lighthouse. The beacon, still with its original lens, continues to guide maritime traffic at the mouth of the Savannah River. The lighthouse keeper's house was built in 1881. The lighthouse is open for sunset tours on a limited basis, including climbing all 178 steps to the top.
Fort Screven was finished in 1905, but decommissioned in 1947.
Fort Screven, the fortification adjacent to the lighthouse, was mandated by the state of Georgia in 1786, but construction did not actually begin until 1897, after the federal government took over the site. Completed in 1905, it was used as a coastal defense artillery fort and an infantry post and was decommissioned in 1947. Today, Battery Garland, one of six remaining batteries at Fort Screven, houses the Tybee Museum which, along with the Tybee Island Light Station, is operated by the non-profit Tybee Island Historical Society.
Also at Fort Screven is Officer’s Row, a group of houses with sweeping ocean views that were built as officer’s residences around 1900.The fort district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Drift fences help prevent erosion of the beach.
Other things to see on Tybee include the Tybee Island pier, which juts out into the Atlantic just off US 80 at Tybrisa Street. It’s a place for fishing, walking, and people-watching, and the pavilion at the end is available to rent for social functions. Also, while you’re near the pier, visit the Marine Science Center, located off the 14th Sreet parking lot. Their mission is “to cultivate a responsible stewardship of coastal Georgia’s natural resources through education, conservation, and research.” They offer walks, talks, and treks, maintain a gallery of exhibits of coastal Georgia flora, fauna, and habitats, and operate week-long sea camp ocean adventures for kids 6–11 each summer. They’re open Thursday to Sunday.
The dunes behind the beach at Tybee Island.
More about Tybee Island coming soon.
About the equipment: A bit of guesswork here, because I've been to Tybe numerous times and and am not sure exactly when some of the pictures were made. The photos of the anchor, the drift fences, and the sand dunes were made with Olympus OM film cameras (best guess), probably on Kodachrome 64 film, and scanned with a Konica-Minolta DiMage 5400 scanner. The lighthouse and Fort Screven were photographed with an Olympus E-M5 digital camera fitted with a Panasonic 14-140mm lens.
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Photography and text copyright 2001-2025 David B.Jenkins.
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Tags: photography travel Olympus E-M5 digital camera Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 14-140mm lens digital photography Olympus OM film camera Tybee Island, Georgia Kodachrome 64 film Georgia coast Tybee Island lighthouses Fort Screven U.S. Highway 80 Konica-Minolta DiMage 5400 film scanner beaches
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