Tybee Island

Tybee has been Savannah's beach for a long time and keeps a low-rise, slightly worn character rather than a resort one. The lighthouse station dates from 1736, making it among the oldest in the country, though the present tower stands on the lower eighteen metres of the brick tower of 1773, rebuilt from 1866; it can be climbed, and the keeper's cottages are preserved. Fort Pulaski nearby was thought impregnable until Union rifled artillery breached its seven-foot brick walls in thirty hours in 1862, an engagement that made masonry forts obsolete worldwide. In February 1958 a B-47 collided with a fighter and jettisoned a Mark 15 hydrogen bomb into Wassaw Sound; it has never been found, and the air force considers it best left undisturbed.

Highlights

• A light station from 1736 - the present tower climbable.
• Fort Pulaski - breached in 1862, ending the era of masonry forts.
• A low-rise beach town - worn rather than resort-polished.
• A bomb still in the sound - lost in 1958 and never recovered.

When to go

April to October. A full day.

What to expect

Parking is paid and enforced throughout the island, and fills in summer. US 80 across the marsh floods at high tides. Summer heat and insects are heavy. The lost bomb is unrecovered but assessed as low risk - it is not a visitable site.

Nearby

Savannah is west; Fort Pulaski is on the way in.