A pile lighthouse is a type of lighthouse

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

 used primarily in Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, including on open reefs

Coral reef

Coral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps...

 adjacent to the Florida Keys

Florida Keys

The Florida Keys are a coral archipelago in southeast United States. They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited Dry...

. Another place in which pile lights are prevalent is Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

The pile lighthouses on the reefs in Florida are tall skeletal towers, with living and working quarters set high above the reach of storm waves. Some of the lights were converted screw-pile lighthouse

Screw-pile lighthouse

A screw-pile lighthouse is a lighthouse which stands on piles that are screwed into sandy or muddy sea or river bottoms. The first screw-pile lighthouse was built by blind Irish engineer Alexander Mitchell...

s, while others were built on piles driven directly into the sea bed.

In Florida

• Alligator Reef Light
  Alligator Reef Light
  Alligator Reef Light is located four nautical miles east of Indian Key, near the Matecumbe Keys of Florida in the United States, north of Alligator Reef itself. The station was established in 1873. It was automated in 1963 and is still operational. The structure is an iron-pile skeleton with a...
  
  
• Carysfort Reef Light
  Carysfort Reef Light
  Carysfort Reef Light is located approximately six nautical miles east of Key Largo, Florida. The lighthouse has an iron screw-pile foundation with a platform, and a skeletal octagonal pyramidal tower, which is painted red. The light is 100 feet above the water. The original lens was a first order...
  
  
• Fowey Rocks Light
  Fowey Rocks Light
  Fowey Rocks Light is located seven miles southeast of Cape Florida on Key Biscayne. The lighthouse was completed in 1878, replacing the Cape Florida lighthouse. It was automated on May 7, 1974 and is still in operation today. The structure is cast iron, with a screw-pile foundation, a platform and...
  
  
• Sombrero Key Light
  Sombrero Key Light
  Sombrero Key Light is located near Key Vaca in Marathon, Florida. The lighthouse is located on a mostly submerged reef. The name Sombrero Key goes back to the Spanish, and old charts show a small island at the spot, but by the later 19th Century the island had eroded away, with some parts of the...
  
  
• American Shoal Light
  American Shoal Light
  The American Shoal Light is located east of the Saddlebunch Keys, close to Looe Key, in Florida, USA. It was completed in 1880, and first lit on July 15, 1880. The structure was built to the same plan and dimensions as the Fowey Rocks lighthouse, completed in 1878.American Shoal Light is cast iron,...
  
  
• Sand Key Light
  Sand Key Light
  Sand Key Light is located six nautical miles southwest of Key West, Florida, between Sand Key Channel and Rock Key Channel, two of the channels into Key West. It is located on a reef that is intermittently covered by sand. At times the key has been substantial enough to have trees, and in 1900 nine...
  
  

In Australia

• South Channel Pile Light, Victoria
  South Channel Pile Light, Victoria
  The South Channel Pile Light is a single-storey octagonal lighthouse in Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia. It was built between 1872 and 1874 to guide ships through the narrow South Channel and was occupied by lighthouse keepers until 1925. The light ceased operation in 1985, having operated as a...
  
  
• Moreton Bay Pile Light
  Moreton Bay Pile Light
  Moreton Bay Pile Light was a pile lighthouse positioned at the mouth of Brisbane River, in Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia, marking the entrance to the port of Brisbane. The light's early history was closely related to the dredging of the Brisbane River. It was established in 1884 as a result of...
  
  
• Eastern Channel Pile Light
  Eastern Channel Pile Light
  Eastern Channel Pile Light, also known as the East Wedding Cake due to its shape, is an active pile lighthouse located at the Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, off Laings Point in the Vaucluse suburb of Sydney. It marks the eastern end of the Sow and Pigs Shoal.-History:Eastern Channel...
  
  , Western Channel Pile Light
  Western Channel Pile Light
  Western Channel Pile Light, also known as the West Wedding Cake due to its shape, is an active pile lighthouse located at the Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, off Georges Head at Mosman. It marks the western end of the Sow and Pigs Shoal...
  
  
• Shark Island Light
  Shark Island Light
  Shark Island Light is an active pile lighthouse located just north of Shark Island, an island in in Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia. Its light is only visible on in the fairway of the harbour, between Shark Point and Point Piper.-Site operation:...