Geography | |
---|---|
Location | San Juan bay, Puerto Rico |
Coordinates | 18°28′20.51″N66°8′12.3″W / 18.4723639°N 66.136750°W Coordinates: 18°28′20.51″N66°8′12.3″W / 18.4723639°N 66.136750°W |
Administration | |
Commonwealth | Puerto Rico |
Municipality | Toa Baja |
Barrio | Palo Seco |
Isla de Cabras (Spanish for goat island) is an islet located at the entrance of the San Juan Bay in Puerto Rico. It is part of the Palo Seco barrio of the municipality of Toa Baja.
Isla de Cabras is the current location of:[ citation needed ]
Island has been a place of many uses during its history.
Due to its strategic location at the entrance of San Juan Bay, Isla de Cabras provided a strategic point for an effective crossfire with Fort San Felipe del Morro to prevent incoming ships from entering. It also provided defenses for the entrance of the Bayamón River on the other side of the islet.
At the end of the 19th century, a leper colony was established on the island. On December 17, 1876, the governor of Puerto Rico, Segundo de la Portilla, set the first stone of the official building to house lepers, which was completed in 1883. However, it is believed that the colony was established prior to construction of the building.[ citation needed ]
Upon the occupation of Puerto Rico by American troops in 1898, management of the building was handed over to the government of the island. According to the 1910 US Census, there were 35 people living on the island at that time.[ citation needed ]
In 1926, a leper asylum was built on the main island (Trujillo Alto) next to a church, and the residents of the colony were moved there. However, the original building still stands on Isla de Cabras.
In the 1940s, the United States built Fort Amezquita (named for Juan de Amézqueta), a few hundred feet from El Cañuelo. The fort was initially called the "Cabras Island Military Reservation". During World War II this fort served as a "concrete gun battery" for the US Army Coast Artillery Corps. In November 1940 the US Army transferred the barrels of three 12-inch coastal guns from Fort Delaware, Delaware; two of these guns were mounted in the fort as Battery Reed with the third as a spare. They were on long-range M1917 barbette carriages and protected by concrete casemates.[ citation needed ]
In recent years, the grounds that belonged to Fort Amezquita were converted into a shooting range and training area by the P.R.P.D. Ownership of the remaining acres of land were under legal dispute, until they were finally transferred to the Department of Sports and Recreation and opened to the public as the Isla de Cabras Recreational Park, [2] which is equipped with several gazebos and includes a beach for swimming and fishing.
Places and views of Isla de Cabras:
San Juan is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jurisdiction of the United States, with a population of 342,259. San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521, who called it Ciudad de Puerto Rico.
Fajardo is a town and municipality-Fajardo Combined Statistical Area.
Cataño is a town and municipality located on the northeastern coast of Puerto Rico, bordering the San Juan Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, and adjacent to the north and east by San Juan; north of Bayamón and Guaynabo; east of Toa Baja and west of Guaynabo and is part of the San Juan Metropolitan Area. Cataño is spread over 7 barrios and Cataño Pueblo. It is part of the San Juan-Caguas-Guaynabo Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The following is an alphabetical list of articles related to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
Castillo San Felipe del Morro, also known as El Morro, is a citadel built between 16th and 18th centuries in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Castillo San Cristóbal is a fortress in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was built by the Spanish to protect against land-based attacks on the city of San Juan. It is part of San Juan National Historic Site.
Old San Juan is a historic district located at the "northwest triangle" of the islet of San Juan. Its area roughly correlates to the Ballajá, Catedral, Marina, Mercado, San Cristóbal, and San Francisco sub-barrios (sub-districts) of barrio San Juan Antiguo in the municipality of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Old San Juan is the oldest settlement within Puerto Rico and the historic colonial district of the city of San Juan. This historic district is a National Historic Landmark District and is listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places as the Old San Juan Historic District. Several historical buildings and structures, particularly La Fortaleza, the city walls, and El Morro and San Cristóbal castles, have been inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list since 1983. Historically the mixed use commercial and residential real estate in the main streets like Cristo Street, Fortaleza Street (north) from Tanca Street to the Governor’s Mansion is the most valuable in the area and it has kept its value and increased steadily through several years despite the past economic turmoils.
San Juan National Historic Site in the Old San Juan section of San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a National Park Service-managed historic site which protects and interprets colonial-era forts such as Castillo San Felipe del Morro, bastions, powder houses, and three fourths of the old city wall.
Fortín San Juan de la Cruz, known locally as El Cañuelo, was built on Isla de Cabras in the Palo Seco barrio of the municipality of Toa Baja, at the western end of the entrance to San Juan Bay, in Puerto Rico. The square coastal fort has massive sandstone walls that date back to the 1630s. Although the U.S. Navy bombarded the fort in 1898, the fort survived. Today the fort is part of the San Juan National Historic Site, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and on the National Register of Historic Places. The fort is not open to visitors, but it can be viewed from its exterior.
Fort San Juan may refer to:
The Isleta de San Juan is a 3-square-mile (7.8 km2) island in the San Juan Bay in the Atlantic coast of northern Puerto Rico. Home of Old San Juan, it is the site of the oldest permanent European settlement in Puerto Rico (1521), and the second oldest European settlement in the West Indies after Santo Domingo (1496). Due its strategic location in the Caribbean during the Spanish colonization of the Americas it is home to a city wall and a number of militaristic buildings such as El Morro Castle. Today it is also home to many of Puerto Rico's government buildings such as the territory's capitol building.
Juan de Amézqueta, was a captain in the Puerto Rican Militia who defended Puerto Rico from an invasion by the Dutch in 1625. He fought and wounded Captain Balduino Enrico who was ordered by the Dutch Government to capture Puerto Rico.
José "Pepe" Díaz and Francisco Díaz were two cousins who served as Sergeants in the Toa Alta Militia. Both cousins helped defeat Sir Ralph Abercromby and defend Puerto Rico during an invasion in 1797.
The Battle of San Juan (1595) was a Spanish victory during the Anglo–Spanish War. This war broke out in 1585 and was fought not only in the European theatre but in Spain's American colonies. After emerging from six years of disgrace following the resounding defeat of the English Armada at Lisbon in 1589, Francis Drake embarked on a long and disastrous campaign against the Spanish Main, suffering several consecutive defeats there. On 22 November 1595 Drake and John Hawkins tried to invade San Juan, Puerto Rico with 27 ships and 2,500 men. After failing to be able to land at the Ensenada del Escambron on the eastern end of San Juan Islet, he attempted to sail into San Juan Bay with the intention of sacking the city. Unable to capture the island, following the death of his comrade, John Hawkins, Drake abandoned San Juan, and set sail for Panama where he died from disease and received a burial at sea after failing to establish an English settlement in America.
Isla Cabras Light, also known as Faro de Isla Cabras, was a lighthouse located on a rocky but flat islet with the same name, which sit just off the coast near Ceiba, Puerto Rico, toward the Vieques Passage.
The Bombardment of San Juan, or the First Battle of San Juan, on 12 May 1898 was an engagement between United States Navy warships and the Spanish fortifications of San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was the first major action of the Puerto Rican Campaign during the Spanish–American War.
The Battle of San Juan was fought on 29 September 1625, and was an engagement of the Eighty Years' War. A Dutch expedition under the command of Boudewijn Hendricksz attacked the island of Puerto Rico, but despite besieging San Juan for two months, was unable to capture it from Spain.
San Juan Bay is the bay and main inlet adjacent to Old San Juan in northeastern Puerto Rico. It is about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) in length, the largest body of water in an estuary of about 97 square miles (250 km2) of channels, inlets and eight interconnected lagoons. The San Juan Bay is home to the island's busiest harbor and its history dates back to at least 1508.
Fortín de San Antonio was a fortification built by the Spanish in San Juan, Puerto Rico with the aim of fortifying the San Antonio Bridge. The bridge was of great strategic importance, given that it was the only land accessible entrance to the islet of San Juan. It was located southeast of Fortín de San Gerónimo.
The San Juan City Wall is a city wall that surrounds the western end of the Islet of San Juan, site of the historic Old San Juan district in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This defensive wall system was built between the 16th and 20th centuries to protect the city and the Bay of San Juan, a highly strategic point in the Caribbean. These walls, along with the defensive fortresses in Old San Juan, form part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site-designated San Juan National Historic Site as they are characteristic examples of the historic methods of construction used in military architecture which adapted European designs and techniques to the special conditions of the Caribbean port cities.