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Tybee Island, Georgia Tybee Island, Georgia Tybee Island is a barrier island in Chatham County, Georgia, near Savannah, United States.

The name Tybee Island is also used for the town/city located on part of this island.

The famous phrase "From Rabun Gap to Tybee Light," intended to illustrate the geographic range of Georgia, contrasts a mountain pass near the state's northernmost point with the coastal island's famous lighthouse.

As of the 2010 census, the city's populace was 2,990. The entire island is a part of the Savannah Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Officially retitled "Savannah Beach" in a publicity move at the end of the 1950s, the town/city of Tybee Island has since reverted to its initial name.

(The name "Savannah Beach" nevertheless appears on official state maps as far back as 1952 and as recently as the mid-1970s.) The small island, which has long been a quiet getaway for the inhabitants of Savannah, has turn into a prominent vacation spot with tourists from outside the Savannah urbane area.

Tybee Island is home to the first of what would eventually turn into the Days Inn chain of hotels, the oft-photographed Tybee Island Light Station, and the Fort Screven Historic District.

Native Americans, using dugout canoes to navigate the waterways, hunted and camped in Georgia's coastal islands for thousands of years.

In 1520, the Spanish laid claim to what is now Tybee Island and titled it Los Bajos.

During that time the island was incessanted by pirates who used the island to hide from those who pursued them.

Augustine and Pensacola; the Sea Islands were depopulated, allowing the establishment of new English settlements such as the colony of Georgia.

Tybee Island Light Station Tybee Island Light Station in 2004 Tybee Island's strategic position near the mouth of the Savannah River has made the island's northern tip the ideal locale for a lighthouse since Georgia's early settlement period.

The Tybee Island Light Station is one of just a handful of 18th-century lighthouses still in operation in North America.

Sneden map showing Union batteries on Tybee Island During the Civil War, the Union Army placed siege batteries along the north coast of Tybee Island that aided in their prosperous bombardment and capture of Fort Pulaski on April 10 11, 1862.

Recently, the City of Tybee Island has taken action to memorialize Tybee's historic significance in the Civil War.

Clear, saltwater breezes were thought to be remedies for various ailments, including asthma and certain allergies. Steamships began carrying patients and tourists to Tybee Island just after the Civil War. In 1887, the Central of Georgia Railway instead of a line to Tybee Island, opening the island to a wave of summer tourists. The barns assembled the Tybrisa Pavilion in 1891, and by the end of the decade, a several hundred summer cottages dotted the island. Route 80 was completed, connecting Tybee Island via road with the mainland.

By 1940, the island had four hotels, including the Desoto Hotel and Hotel Tybee, and various lesser lodges.

Day opened the first Days Inn on Tybee Island in 1970. 1958 Tybee Island B-47 crash Air Force B-47 Stratojet from Homestead Air Force Base, Florida, jettisoned a nuclear weapon (specifically, a Mark 15 hydrogen bomb) off the coast of Tybee Island while conducting training exercises with a USAF F-86 Sabrejet.

The lost weapon, known popularly as the "Tybee Bomb", remained a security concern for a several years, although the Air Force claims the bomb lacks a nuclear capsule and does not pose a serious threat. In 2004, retired United States Air force Lieutenant Colonel Derek Duke took part in a private search for the bomb.

According to an article in the Savannah Morning News, Duke concluded that there were "high levels of radiation and unusual magnetometer readings" at a specific point in Wassaw Sound, just off the Tybee coast. Duke concluded, from these readings, that the bomb might be present "at a point just off the southern tip of Little Tybee," an undeveloped barrier island near Tybee Island.

In response, the Air Force launched a nine-month search for the Tybee bomb in 2004.

Tybee Island is positioned at 32 0 24 N 80 50 58 W (32.006672, -80.849374). The island is the northeastern-most of Georgia's Sea Islands, which comprise the outer section of the state's Lower Coastal Plain region.

Like the other Sea Islands, Tybee consists of a sandy beach on its easterly shore and a tidal salt marsh on its shore.

The Savannah River empties into the Atlantic Ocean just north of Tybee Island, placing the island in a historically strategic location.

To the west, the marsh-lined Lazaretto Creek splits the island off from Mc - Queens Island (the 2-mile (3 km) stretch between the chief shore of Tybee Island and Lazaretto Creek is mostly marshland).

Tybee Creek flows along the south shore of Tybee Island and joins the Atlantic at the island's southeastern tip.

Little Tybee Island, which consists mostly of protected wetlands, lies athwart Tybee Creek to the southwest.

The size of the sandy beach at the southern tip of Tybee Island varies considerably in response to tidal changes.

Of this, 3.7 miles (6.0 km) is territory and 1.4 miles (2.3 km), or 27.2%, is water. The entire island (as distinguished from the town/city of the same name) has a territory area of 21.871 square miles (56.65 km2). The Tybee Island pier's annual fireworks show Every year since 1987, Tybee Island has had an annual Beach Bum parade, traditionally held in May the weekend before Memorial Day weekend.

Tybee Island is part of the Chatham County School District.

Fort Screven and the North Beach, viewed from the Tybee Lighthouse The south tip of Tybee Island at low tide Lazaretto Marsh, off the shore of Tybee Island Entrance to The Crab Shack, a prominent spot on Tybee Island a b "Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (G001): Tybee Island city, Georgia".

"Tybee Island Beach Management Plan." a b c "Tybee Island Beach Management Plan." Tybee Island Pier & Pavilion." "8th Annual Tybee Island Pirate Fest".

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Tybee Island.

City of Tybee Island official website Discover Tybee Island, serving Tybee since 1996 Tybee Island Light Station Tybee Island Marine Science Center Community Resilience: Tybee Island creates Georgia's first sea level rise plan, May 18, 2016 NOAA Bloomingdale Garden City Pooler Port Wentworth Savannah Tybee Island Dutch Island Georgetown Henderson Isle of Hope Montgomery Skidaway Island Talahi Island Whitemarsh Island Wilmington Island state)Barrier islands of Georgia (U.S.