In 1999 the Atlantic Ocean was only about 60 feet from the base of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in North Carolina. The shoreline was retreating. The brick tower had to be saved.
Engineers chose to move it whole, not take it apart.
The new site was 2,900 feet (884 meters) inland. That is almost ten American football fields set end to end.
How do you free a whole tower from its base?
First they shifted its weight onto steel beams. Hydraulic jacks built into those beams, lifts that work with fluid under pressure, raised the lighthouse about 6 feet so rollers could slide underneath.
Then other jacks pushed it along a prepared steel track, about 5 feet at a time. At the end, the tower had to rest on a new foundation.
Sixty sensors watched tilt and vibration the whole time.
The move took 23 days and ended with no damage. The lighthouse stood about as far from the ocean as when it was built.
They did not take the tower apart to save it.
They moved it with all of its weight.
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