Gulf of Paria crossing

Last updated

The Gulf of Paria crossing is a hypothetical bridge or tunnel spanning the Gulf of Paria that would connect the island of Trinidad and South America. [1]

Contents

Background

Trinidad was connected to Venezuela (as also with Tobago) during the last ice age by natural "land bridges" between them. Trinidad and Tobago are part of the continental shelf of South America, and Trinidad is, at its closest, only about 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) from the South American mainland. [2] A mere short distance, and visible across the Gulf of Paria on a clear day. At various stages of Trinidad's post independent history, members with the government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago have spoken of constructing a physical link between the islands of Trinidad and Tobago to physically unify the country. [3] As public discussion and commentary ensued over feasibility and cost, [4] an alternative proposal was made of constructing a shorter connection which would connect Trinidad and Venezuela. [5]

Routes

See also

Related Research Articles

The history of Trinidad and Tobago begins with the settlements of the islands by Amerindians, specifically the Island Carib and Arawak peoples. Both islands were visited by Christopher Columbus on his third voyage in 1498 and claimed in the name of Spain. Trinidad remained in Spanish hands until 1797, but it was largely settled by French colonists. Tobago changed hands between the British, French, Dutch, and Courlanders, but eventually ended up in British hands following the second Treaty of Paris (1814). In 1889 the two islands were incorporated into a single crown colony. Trinidad and Tobago obtained its independence from the British Empire in 1962 and became a republic in 1976.

Geography of Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic republic in the southern Caribbean between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Venezuela. They are southeasterly islands of the Lesser Antilles, Monos, Huevos, Gaspar Grande, Little Tobago, and St. Giles Island. Trinidad is 11 km (6.8 mi) off the northeast coast of Venezuela and 130 km (81 mi) south of the Grenadines. The island measures 4,768 km2 (1,841 sq mi) in area with an average length of 80 km (50 mi) and an average width of 59 km (37 mi). The island appears rectangular in shape with three projecting peninsular corners. Tobago is 30 km (19 mi) northeast of Trinidad and measures about 298 km2 (115 sq mi) in area, or 5.8% of the country's area, 41 km (25.5 mi) in length and 12 km (7.5 mi) at its greatest width. The island is cigar-shaped in appearance, with a northeast-southwest alignment.

Orinoco River in Venezuela and Colombia

The Orinoco River is one of the longest rivers in South America at 2,250 kilometres (1,400 mi). Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers 880,000 km2 (340,000 sq mi), with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the world by discharge volume of water. The Orinoco River and its tributaries are the major transportation system for eastern and interior Venezuela and the Llanos of Colombia. The environment in the Orinoco's basin is extremely diverse; it hosts a wide variety of flora and fauna.

Gulf of Paria A shallow semi-enclosed inland sea between the island of Trinidad and the east coast of Venezuela

The Gulf of Paria is a 7,800 km2 (3,000 sq mi) shallow semi-enclosed inland sea located between the island of Trinidad and the east coast of Venezuela. It separates the two countries by as little as 15 km at its narrowest and 120 km at its widest points. The tides within the gulf are semi-diurnal in nature with a range of approximately 1m. The Gulf of Paria is considered to be one of the best natural harbours on the Atlantic coast of the Americas. The jurisdiction of the Gulf of Paria is split between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela with Trinidad and Tobago having control over approximately 2,940 km2 (1,140 sq mi)(37.7%) and Venezuela the remainder(62.3%).

Columbus Channel

The Columbus Channel or Serpent's Mouth, is a strait lying between Icacos Point in southwest Trinidad and Tobago and the north coast of Venezuela. It leads from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Paria. The channel is about nine miles (14 km) wide at its narrowest point.

Cocoa panyols

The Panyols are a Pardo (tri-racial) ethnic group in Trinidad and Tobago of mixed Spanish, South American Amerindian, Trinidadian and Tobagonian Amerindian, Afro-Latin American, and Afro-Trinidadian and Tobagonian descent. They comprise the Cocoa Estate Plantations owners community along with peasant workers from Venezuela and Colombia, also referred to as Pagnols, local Spanish, Cocoa panyols. They were born of the shared Island nation, on both sides of the Gulf of Paria, Peninsulas that settling within the Northern Range Rain Forest Mountains Valleys of Trinidad and Tobago Caura River, down the mountains into the Tacarigua River into the Caroni River, and the Orinoco, and Caura River Venezuela. They played an important role in the development of the cocoa industry in Trinidad and Tobago, running the Cocoa Estate and not to be confused with the freed community of former slaves.

Bocas del Dragón

The Bocas del Dragón is the name of the series of straits separating the Gulf of Paria from the Caribbean Sea. There are four Bocas, from west to east:

Cedros, Trinidad and Tobago

The coastal area known as Cedros lies on a peninsula at the South-Western end of the island of Trinidad. Located at the tip of the peninsula, Cedros or Bonasse as it is more commonly known especially on maps, lies mere miles off the coast of Venezuela, and is the most southern point in the Caribbean. According to a Trinidad Guardian article, "Cedros is the closest legal point of entry to Venezuelans wishing to enter Trinidad and Tobago."

Couva–Tabaquite–Talparo Region

Couva–Tabaquite–Talparo is one of the 9 regions of Trinidad and Tobago, and one of the five regions which form Gulf of Paria coastline on Trinidad's West Coast. Its regional capital and commercial center is Couva. Couva–Tabaquite–Talparo is the third-largest of Trinidad and Tobago's 9 regions, with an area of 723 square kilometres (300 sq mi). As of 2011, the population was 178,410. The region is the second-most populous and fourth-least-densely populated region in Trinidad with 247 inhabitants per square kilometre (640/sq mi).

Gasparillo Island

Gasparillo is a small island in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is one of the Bocas Islands, which lie in the Bocas del Dragón between the main island of Trinidad and Venezuela. The island is currently uninhabited.

Carrera Island

Carrera Island is one of the two Diego Islands in the Gulf of Paria, Trinidad and Tobago. Situated off the northwest peninsula of Trinidad, the islet comprises approximately 20 acres (8.1 ha). When Trinidad was under Spanish rule, Carrera Island was known as Isla Carrera.

Soldado Rock

Soldado Rock or Soldier's Rock, formerly known as Soldado Island, is a small island in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located in the Gulf of Paria 10 km off Icacos Point in Trinidad and north of the Venezuelan mainland. The island was originally a possession of the Venezuelan government, but became part of the territory of Trinidad and Tobago in 1942. The island is a wildlife sanctuary since being declared in 1934.

Patos Island (Venezuela)

Patos Island is a small uninhabited island in the northwestern Gulf of Paria. The island is a part of the Dependencias Federales of Venezuela.

Paria may refer to the following :

Tropical Storm Alma (1974)

Tropical Storm Alma, the first named storm to develop in the 1974 Atlantic hurricane season, was a short lived tropical cyclone that made a rare Venezuelan landfall. The storm formed from the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) on August 12 well to the east of the Windward Islands, but advisories were not issued until the next day when Alma was at peak intensity. Alma entered the southeastern Caribbean Sea at an unusually brisk westward pace of between 20 mph (32 km/h) to 25 mph (40 km/h), prompting numerous watches and gale warnings throughout the nations in this region. After crossing Trinidad, Alma became one of only four tropical storms to traverse the Paria Peninsula of northeastern Venezuela. The storm dissipated on August 15 over the high terrain of Venezuela.

OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, inaugurated in 2011 by the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, is an annual literary award for books by Caribbean writers published in the previous year. It is the only prize in the region that is open to works of different literary genres by writers of Caribbean birth or citizenship.

Güiria Place in Sucre, Venezuela

Güiria is the capital city of Valdez Municipality in the Venezuelan state of Sucre. Güiria was the place where the military campaign for South American independence set out to Upper Peru and also a starting point of the 1901 Venezuelan Civil War. Founded on 8 December 1767, Güiria is the state's third-largest urban centre, with a population of approximately 40,000. It is an important harbour, the only one in Venezuela located on the open Atlantic Ocean rather than on the Caribbean Sea, and the economic centre of Paria Peninsula, due to it being near the Gulf of Paria's natural gas fields, where several state and private companies have exploration projects.

Tropical Storm Bret (2017) Atlantic tropical storm in 2017

Tropical Storm Bret was the earliest named storm to develop in the Main Development Region of the Atlantic basin on record. Bret formed from a low-latitude tropical wave that had moved off the coast of Africa on June 12. The disturbance moved swiftly across the Atlantic for several days, steadily organizing despite its low latitude. On June 18, the organization increased enough for the National Hurricane Center (NHC) to begin issuing warnings disturbance while it was located southeast of the Windward Islands. The system continued to organize, and by the next day, it had developed into a tropical storm, the second of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season. Bret continued moving swiftly to the west and struck Trinidad and Tobago early on June 20, before entering the Caribbean Sea, dissipating shortly afterwards.

Coastal Venezuelan mangroves

The Coastal Venezuelan mangroves ecoregion covers the salt-water mangrove forests along the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean coast of Venezuela, from Cocinetas Basin to the edge of the Caño Manamo River and the Orinoco Delta in the east. It is one of the largest mangrove ecoregions in South America, with an area of 5,698 km2, and stretching across over 400 km of Venezuelan coastline.

References

  1. Boland, Rawle (November 9, 2010). "Is a bridge to Venezuela so pointless?". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday . Daily News Ltd. Retrieved July 9, 2013.
  2. (PDF) http://www.eclac.cl/portofspain/noticias/paginas/2/14552/Trinidad%20and%20Tobago.pdf.Missing or empty |title= (help)[ full citation needed ]
  3. Hon. P. Manning, The Prime Minister and Minister of Finance (October 6, 2003). http://www.ttparliament.org/hansards/hh20031006.pdf |chapter-url= missing title (help)(PDF). Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) . Trinidad and Tobago: House of Representatives. pp. 41–41.
  4. Kangal, Stephen (December 17, 2006). "Letter to the EMA – Re: The Rapid Rail System". Trinidad and Tobago News Blog. Trinidad and Tobago News. Retrieved July 13, 2013. In addition, this should not be limited to folks in Central , but eventually spread toward the East , South, and even Western areas. I would like to see the implementation of toll boots along our highways, as this can help discourage congestions as drivers would see it more in their interest to park and ride, like the big boys and gals do in the more industrialized world . While we are at it , perhaps it’s time to begin a follow up on long delayed talks to build a bridge between Toco and Tobago , This would certainly serve as a first step to truly linking the two islands ,as opposed to the almost diabolical, and economically imbalanced charade that existed for too long under our past five post colonial Prime Ministers.
  5. Ramoutar, Paras (September 17, 2011). "Build Toco-Tobago bridge with China's assistance". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday . Daily News Ltd. Retrieved July 9, 2013.