Dangerous currents, responsible for many shipwrecks, led to the construction of the Gatteville lighthouse. The site actually comprises two lighthouses as the smallest, considered obsolete, was downgraded to the status of a semaphore in 1835. Charles-Félix Morice de la Rue, an engineer of the École des Ponts et Chaussées (Bridges and Roads School), was entrusted with the creation of the new lighthouse. The tower's diameter of 30 ft (9.25 m) at its base is reduced to 20 ft (6 m) at the footbridge. Back then, the lighthouse of Gatteville was the highest in France with its 243 ft (74.75 m). It was automated in 1984 and abandoned by its last keeper in 1990.