There is a specific rhythm to climbing the 203 steps of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse. It is a spiral of red brick and iron that dates back to 1887, a time when “high tech” meant a very clean Fresnel lens from Paris. While the lighthouse briefly went dark in the 70s, it’s now a National Historic Landmark that feels like the quiet, dignified grandfather of the noisy Atlantic coastline. Standing at the top, looking over the inlet, you realize that while the rest of Florida is obsessed with the new, some things are better left exactly as they were in the 19th century.
