Editing Ponce Inlet, Florida (section)

==Lighthouse==
[[File:Ponce Inlet Lighthouse09.jpg|left|thumb|Ponce de León Inlet lighthouse in 2011.]]
{{Main|Ponce de Leon Inlet Light}}
Completed in 1887, replacing the former lighthouse (built in 1835, it had collapsed into the inlet the following year), the Ponce de Leon Inlet Light Station was built when the area was known as Mosquito Inlet. After decades of restoration by the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Association, it stands today as one of the best preserved light stations in the nation.

Visited by over 80,000 people each year, the Ponce de Leon Inlet Light Station was designated a [[National Historic Landmark]] in 1998. The lighthouse tower and museum are located {{convert|12|mi}} south of Daytona Beach and are open to the public year-round. The Ponce Inlet Lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse in Florida and the second tallest lighthouse in the nation. Visitors who climb the {{convert|175|ft|m|adj=mid|-tall}} lighthouse tower are treated to a view of the Florida coastline and [[Halifax River]] from Daytona Beach to [[New Smyrna Beach, Florida|New Smyrna Beach]].

The lighthouse keepers' dwellings and other historic light station buildings are now home to the lighthouse museum, with exhibits on lighthouse life, lighthouse and [[Fresnel lens]] restoration, the keepers and their families, Daytona Beach and Florida history, and [[shipwreck]]s. The Ayres Davies Lens Exhibit Building houses one of the finest collections of restored Fresnel lenses in the world, including the rotating first order Fresnel lens from the [[Cape Canaveral Light|Cape Canaveral lighthouse]] and the restored original Ponce Inlet lighthouse first-order Fresnel lens.