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gay head

Here's how to move a lighthouse

It’s a very, very slow process.

Imperiled Lighthouse AP Photo / Charles Krupa AP Photo / Charles Krupa / Charles Krupa

MOVING HOME IS never an easy thing to do, but this lighthouse is taking things to a whole other level.

Locals are going to extremes to save an old lighthouse in Massachusetts before coastal erosion wears away the cliff its standing on.

Imperiled Lighthouse Charles Krupa / AP/Press Association Images Charles Krupa / AP/Press Association Images / AP/Press Association Images

The 159-year-old Gay Head Lighthouse is now being moved 50 metres away from the crumbling clay.

The Vineyard Gazette explains how the move is taking place:

The brick-and-mortar lighthouse stands within an enormous excavation, balanced on a 100-ton steel frame and rolling almost imperceptibly along two massive steel beams toward a large concrete pad 129 feet to the east.

Imperiled Lighthouse Charles Krupa / AP/Press Association Images Charles Krupa / AP/Press Association Images / AP/Press Association Images

Soap is being rubbed on the beams to ensure a smooth movement

The mammoth task reportedly requires just three workers.

Imperiled Lighthouse Associated Press Associated Press

You can watch the progress live here, although as you can probably imagine it’s not a speed process.

‘It wasn’t a job – it was a way of life’: The ‘lost tradition’ of Irish lighthouse keepers >

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