beach located northwest of the Edgartown Light. This same 1908 illustration shows how the Edgartown lighthouse is surrounded by water except for the wooden access causeway. In the 1950s, due to a series of hurricanes, the barrier beach stretching between Eel Pond and Nantucket Sound was destroyed. A large volume of the destabilized Eel Pond barrier beach sand was carried southeasterly by prevailing littoral drift toward the Edgartown Light area. Eventually, the sands dropped out of suspension and created a barrier beach surrounding Edgartown Harbor Light. This so-called "Lighthouse Beach" surrounding Edgartown Harbor Light continues to exist today, and serves as a barrier beach between Nantucket Sound and Lighthouse Pond. As depicted in the photograph to right, the first Edgartown lighthouse (constructed 1828) featured a glass lantern room protruding from the middle of the gabled roof of the Keeper's residence. This lantern room contained a fixed white light that was visible for about 14 miles. This same basic structure, with attached Keeper's house, served as the Edgartown lighthouse from 1828 to 1938. In 1938, as a result of the Hurricane of 1938 - the Edgartown Harbor Light was closed to public access due to severe structural damage caused to the lighthouse and its access causeway. In 1939, the new conical cast-iron tower from Ipswich was installed and automated. Due to automation and related removal of the resident lighthouse Keeper, there was no longer a built-in system for accommodating public access. Subsequently, the Edgartown lighthouse was closed to public access from 1938 to 1988. August 1991, Hurricane Bob caused severe damage to the rap and stone public access causeway to the Edgartown Light. VERI initiated restoration of the causeway by raising funds from property owners abutting Lighthouse Pond. VERI board member, Fairleigh S. Dickinson, Jr., who owned a home abutting Lighthouse Pond, was instrumental in organizing donations from his fellow neighbors. The donated funds were applied toward engineering and permitting efforts, as well as structural rebuilding of the causeway. Necessary engineering; permit applications; public hearings; material acquisition, and reconstruction oversight was performed at no cost to VERI or the community by Vineyard Environmental Protection, Inc.(VEP). An important component of the new causeway's engineering design was the addition of a second culvert to facilitate tidal flushing of Lighthouse Pond. The rebuilding of the public access causeway was completed in November 1991. October 29, 2012 - storm surge from Hurricane Sandy struck Martha's