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The United States Virgin Islands is an unincorporated territory of the United States that comprises a group of islands in the Caribbean. In addition to the main residential islands of Saint Thomas, Saint Croix, Saint John, and Water Island, there are roughly 50 other islands and cays. These include:
The United States Virgin Islands are a group of several dozen islands and cays located in the Caribbean, about 1,100 miles (1,770 km) southeast of Florida, 600 miles (966 km) north of Venezuela, 40 miles (64 km) east of Puerto Rico, and immediately west and south of the British Virgin Islands.
Charlotte Amalie, located on St. Thomas, is the capital and the largest city of the United States Virgin Islands. It was founded in 1666 as Taphus. In 1691, the town was renamed to Charlotte Amalie after the Danish queen Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel (1650–1714). It has a deep-water harbor that was once a haven for pirates and is now one of the busiest ports of call for cruise ships in the Caribbean, with about 1.5 million-plus cruise ship passengers landing there annually. Protected by Hassel Island, the harbor has docking and fueling facilities, machine shops, and shipyards and was a U.S. submarine base until 1966. The Town has been inhabited for centuries. When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1493, the area was inhabited by Caribs, Arawaks, Ciboney and Taíno native peoples. It is on the southern shore at the head of Saint Thomas Harbor. In 2010 the City had a population of 18,481, which makes it the largest city in the Virgin Islands Archipelago. Hundreds of ferries and yachts pass by the Town each week.
Saint Croix is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States.
Saint Thomas is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea, one of the three largest of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States. Along with surrounding minor islands, it is one of three county-equivalents in the USVI. Together with Saint John, it forms one of the districts of the USVI. The territorial capital and port of Charlotte Amalie is located on the island. As of the 2020 census, the population of Saint Thomas was 42,261, about 48.5% of the total population of the United States Virgin Islands. The island has a land area of 32 square miles (83 km2).
Buck Island Reef National Monument protects Buck Island, a small, uninhabited 176-acre island about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of the northeast coast of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, and 18,839 acres of submerged lands, totaling 19,015 acres. It was first established as a protected area by the U.S. Government in 1948, with the intention of preserving “one of the finest marine gardens in the Caribbean Sea.” The U.S. National Monument was created in 1961 by John F. Kennedy and greatly expanded in 2001 by Bill Clinton, over the opposition of local fishermen. Buck Island National Monument is one of few places in the Virgin Islands where brown pelicans and threatened least terns nest.
Saint John is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea and a constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States.
Christiansted is the largest town on Saint Croix, one of the main islands composing the United States Virgin Islands, a territory of the United States of America. The town is named after King Christian VI of Denmark.
The United States Virgin Islands, often abbreviated USVI, are a group of islands and cays located in the Lesser Antilles of the Eastern Caribbean, consisting of three main islands and fifty smaller islets and cays. Like many of their Caribbean neighbors, the history of the islands is characterized by native Amerindian settlement, European colonization, and the Atlantic slave trade.
Cinnamon Bay is a body of water and a beach on St. John island, within Virgin Islands National Park, in the United States Virgin Islands.
Green Cay National Wildlife Refuge, encompasses the 6 ha (14 acre) island of Green Cay lying midway between the town of Christiansted and Buck Island Reef National Monument, just north of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands of the Caribbean. It is administered as part of the Caribbean Islands National Wildlife complex. There is a smaller "Green Cay" off the coast of Saint Thomas.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the United States Virgin Islands:
The following is an alphabetical list of articles related to the territory of the United States Virgin Islands.
Sugar production in the United States Virgin Islands was an important part of the economy of the United States Virgin Islands for over two hundred years. Long before the islands became part of the United States in 1917, the islands, in particular the island of Saint Croix, was exploited by the Danish from the early 18th century and by 1800 over 30,000 acres were under cultivation, earning Saint Croix a reputation as the "Garden of the West Indies". Since the closing of the last sugar factory on Saint Croix in 1966, the industry has become only a memory.
The fauna of the United States Virgin Islands consists of 144 species of birds, 22 species of mammals, 302 species of fish and 7 species of amphibians. The wildlife of the U.S.V.I. includes numerous endemic species of tropical birds, fish, and land reptiles as well as sea mammals. The only endemic land mammals are six species of native bats: the greater bulldog bat, Antillean fruit-eating bat, red fruit bat, Brazilian free-tailed bat, velvety free-tailed bat and the Jamaican fruit bat. Some of the nonnative land mammals roaming the islands are the white-tailed deer, small Asian mongoose, goats, feral donkeys, rats, mice, sheep, hogs, dogs and cats.
Protestant Cay is a four-acre triangular islet in the Christiansted Harbor, 200 yards north of Christiansted. The island is home to a resort, the Hotel on the Cay, which is home to a protected sand beach, small shop and beach bar. It also has the closest beach to Downtown Christiansted. With one of the ferries, which run from 7 a.m. to 12 a.m., every ten minutes, it will only take about two minutes to get there. The ride is free of charge after 4 p.m., and for guests of the Hotel on the Cay. To get on the ferry, passengers have to stand near the boardwalk in front of the King Christian Hotel and wave to the boat captain on duty.
Whistling Cay is a 19-acre (7.7 ha) islet, situated 300 yards (270 m) west of Mary Point on Saint John in the United States Virgin Islands. It is covered with trees and high cliffs in the north, where it reaches a 130-foot (40 m) elevation. A gravel beach is located on the southeast side of the island. It is separated from Saint John by the Fungi Passage, which has a depth of 21 feet (6.4 m).
Henley Cay, previously known as Women's Cay, is an 11-acre tropical islet in the United States Virgin Islands. The cay is 300 yards in diameter and the largest and southernmost of the Durloe Cays in the Virgin Islands National Park. Henley Cay is situated 2,200 feet northwest of Turtle Bay on the island of Saint John, separated from the island by the Durloe Channel. The cay is 70 feet high and has a pier on its southern side, although it is uninhabited. The island is known as a snorkeling and kayaking destination, but is also visited for its white sandy beaches. Companies offer guided kayak tours from Cruz Bay, Honeymoon Bay, and Caneel Bay to Henley- and Lovango Cays.
Cinnamon Cay is a cay in the United States Virgin Islands, situated approximately 0.7 miles east of Trunk Cay in the Cinnamon Bay, and 100 yards from the shore at Cinnamon Bay Beach on Saint John island. It has a height of 32 feet. The islet is uninhabited, but regularly visited by scuba-divers, snorkelers and kayakers. Cinnamon Bay Watersports offers kayaks and snorkeling equipment for travelers to the cay. Cinnamon Cay is mostly covered with grass and cactus, and is located within the Virgin Islands National Park.
East End is an administrative subdistrict of the island of St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. The largest community is Red Hook, while smaller communities include Benner, Nazareth, Nadir, Frydendal, and Smith Bay. The subdistrict includes the offshore islands of Great Saint James, Little Saint James, Bovoni Cay, Patricia Cay, Cas Cay, Rotto Cay, Thatch Cay, Shark Island, and Dog Island.
Northside with its population of 10,049 as of the 2010 United States Census is the second-most populous administrative census subdistrict (CSD) on Saint Thomas, only less populated than the Charlotte Amalie subregion with the islands’ territorial capital of more than 18,000 people. Northside is sometimes called Nordside in Virgin Islands Creole, which is the Danish translation for north side. Northside is home to communities such as Neltjeberg, Zambee, Resolution, Ensomned, Barrett, Solberg, Lerkenlund, Misgen, Mafolie, Louisenhoj, Estate Thomas, Mandal, Enighed, Canaan, and Peterborg. By area, the Northside subdistrict is the largest administrative census sub-district on the Saint Thomas island.