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45-646: Ensenada Honda is about 4.6 square miles in area, but with a maximum depth of 40 1/2 foot, it is the second deepest bay in Puerto Rico after San Juan Bay . It flanks the open water passage known as "Radas Roosevelt" in the Vieques Strait and sits near the trafficked "Pasaje de Medio Mundo" (English: Middle of the World Passage ). Ensenada Honda ebbs about 2 miles northwestward, between the capes of Cabra de Tierra and Punta Cascajo. Cabra de Tierra

90-718: A combined Taíno and Kalinago (or Caribs) stronghold just before the moment of contact with the Atlantic sojourners who came from across the ocean on caravels in 1493 . Late in the Pre-Columbian era , a group of Kalinagos had begun a gradual migration from the Orinoco's basin , occupying the Lesser Antilles while moving north and reaching the nearby islands of Vieques and Culebra . By 1508, when Juan Ponce de León 's team of Iberian adventurers had claimed

135-467: A house built in Caparra. In 1511 the crown appointed a new governor, Juan Cerón , who received royal permission to relocate the village. According to Rodrigo de Figueroa 's map, the villagers resettled on a three-mile blustery, wooded islet at the bay's entrance. In 1521, the residents completed the resettlement and named the new village "Villa de Puerto Rico". Several years later, after a royal upgrade,

180-414: A white light visible all around, showing higher intensity on range line for nine miles away (some even say 14). Its original lens was a sixth-order Fresnel lens . A keeper managed the light and occupied the building's two rooms. As the islands of Culebra and Vieques became both military posts and tourists destinations, the lighthouse played a role in safeguarding the increasing number of trips across

225-406: Is cleared, while mangroves fringe the shoreline. A reef lies on the shore bank at about 250 yards on the inlet's southern side. Early written sources relate little about the eastern portion of Borikén , Puerto Rico's indigenous name. Regardless of the scant data, the prehistoric cove must have been a busy place according to rock carvings , some of which still adorn its coast. It should have become

270-627: Is one of the finest harbors in Porte Rico, which is wholly undeveloped. It is called the Ensenada Honda, and is landlocked, deep, and safe." The U.S. Navy interest in Ensenada Honda and the shorelines of Vieques and Culebra dates back to the 1898 Spanish–American War when U.S. warships rounded the island, and its officers took tactical notes of its contours. For the first time, the bay appeared in writing in reference to its potential for military use. In 1919, Lt. Robert L. Pettigrew conceived

315-480: 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 km ) 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. The bay is a semi-enclosed body of water with an elaborate system of loops, basins and channels at

360-406: Is the southern tip of the headland that separates Bahía de Puerca and Ensenada Honda. Cabra de Tierra is 35 feet high and rocky with a few scrub trees. Buoys mark a dredged channel that leads northwestward into the harbor from a position of about 1/2/mile southward of Cabra de Tierra. A shore bank with a depth of fewer than 3 fathoms stretches for about 1 mile southeastward from Punta Cascajo. Inside

405-456: The Caribbean area . In 1904, the U.S. Coast Guard purchased the 20 acres (8 ha) of land for $ 200, and by May 13, 1908, the lighthouse was ready for service. The cost of the undertaking, including the entrance road and the pier, reached a total of $ 5654.55. The lighthouse building was unique among the lighthouses in Puerto Rico in that it resembled the rectangular shape and design of

450-608: The San Juan Bay on the northern coast and settled Caparra , the Caribs must have already established hegemony over the Ensenada Honda. According to colonial reports, their attacks proceeded from the Vieques Strait area, where they coordinated military movements with rebellious Taíno caciques in the east. European invaders had entered Puerto Rico from the west in search of the island's meager mineral wealth and seeking

495-524: The Spanish colonial network . With its strategic location, it was a target for pirate attacks and a site for imperial powers to demonstrate military might. On the east side of the bay's mouth, the Castillo San Felipe del Morro still guards its narrow entrance. The Port of San Juan , on the islet at the bay's northern side, is among the busiest Caribbean ports. Thousands of fishermen ply

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540-662: The Taíno island. Boriquén, the indigenous name for Puerto Rico, would be the second Caribbean island to become part of the Spanish Empire . In 1508 Ponce de León sailed into the Bay of Guanica , on the west of the island, where local cacique Agüeybaná I welcomed his men as allies against the Caribs. However, the Spanish did not find a suitable place to settle there. The adelantado and his small team of hidalgos traversed

585-433: The brackish waters where fresh water meets the sea . San Juan Bay's beauty and ecological diversity attracts tourism and a variety of recreational activities. A result of exploitation, however, has been the degradation of a significant portion of the bay's natural resources; the area is also susceptible to seismic activity. A restoration project has returned the bay's water to "safe at contact" status and has integrated

630-530: The Atlantic winds may have provided a healthier climate on the islet, moving the village from Caparra to the bay did not protect the settlers further from Carib attacks. The Caribs, understanding the impact of European colonization on their survival, stormed the new settlement fiercely. By the eighteenth century the population of the islet had expanded into the Atlantic City of San Juan , largely due to

675-543: The Caribbean gave the Navy the necessary incentive for its expansion designs. They meant the station at Ensenada Honda to grow into the "main fleet operation base in the Atlantic," and become the Navy's largest complex. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had appointed Admiral William D. Leahy governor of Puerto Rico and had charged him with preparing the island to assist the U.S. Navy in war preparations. The governor

720-416: The Ensenada Honda mangroves aside as a natural preserve ( Spanish : Planes de aprovechamiento forestal ). By the end of the century, Ensenada Honda had become the center of much economic activity around the timber, fishing and sugarcane industries. But, in 1905, the newly arrived U.S. Department of Agriculture saw it differently. It reported that "On the coast south of Fajardo and near to the village of Ceiba

765-596: The Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (Public Law 106-398), as amended by Section 1049 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002 (Public Law 107-107). In 2015, Puerto Rico's Department of Natural Resources received back from the federal government 70 acres around the cove for the protection of its natural resources. San Juan Bay San Juan Bay ( Spanish : Bahía de San Juan )

810-474: The Spanish colonial power, landed on the Ensenada Honda but were repelled by the Fajardo local militia. The corsairs' attack led the authorities to pay more attention to the vulnerable region. In 1813, Iñigo Abbad y Lasierra mentioned the "Ensenada Honda" in the first major publication of Puerto Rico's history, but only in passing. It took the independent-minded leaders of the "Seiba" barrio to branch off from

855-576: The acquisition of the property around Ensenada Honda followed. An upsurge of jobs and a booming local economy accompanied the development. The construction pace seemed to move to the rhythm of the war news with Pearl Harbor staging the background. Puerto Rico could become the next target. Adding to the urgency, the Axis powers proved to be a menace indeed. And to the surprise of Puerto Ricans and U.S. observers alike, from April to May 1942, German submarines sank eight ships en route to Puerto Rico. As quickly as

900-535: The bay to other lagoons and the city of Río Piedras . The Spanish conquistadors of the New World thought in terms of urban landscapes and municipal organization . They did not launch their conquista de las Indias from ocean-going caravels or itinerant campsites. The Spanish needed solid dwellings, preferably surrounded by rock walls, as they had in Europe . Juan Ponce de León spent days searching for

945-619: The best place to build a villa , the blueprint for a colonial city. Santo Domingo governor Nicolás de Ovando had appointed him to pacify and evangelize the nearby island, which Christopher Columbus had named "San Juan Bautista" during his second voyage to the Americas. A frontier with dreaded, reportedly-cannibalistic Caribs on its coast, it was an opportunity to demonstrate machismo and glorify God and country. Following de Ovando's recommendation, Ferdinand II of Aragon made Ponce de León an adelantado and authorized him to conquer

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990-536: The better-known light in the Morro , but with the castle 's stone structure. Differently from its San Juan relative, the building overseeing the Vieques Passage was a small two-story lightgray stone daymark structure with a red stripe and a clear white trim. Its black lantern room sat on a small cylindrical tower on of its corners at the top of the building. It stood 78 feet off the ground, and projected

1035-762: The buildings rose from the ground, the economic boom deflated. It was not only about the dismissing of construction workers. The illusion of a sustained economic boom had facilitated mass expropriations. Ceiba's municipal government lost 8,500 of its 18,000 acres, about % 47 of its land. "In effect, Ceiba became a coastal community without a coast." Military installations now occupied Ceiba's finest farming plots and marine assets, in addition to extended stretches of crucial coastal land. The rapid development also evicted Over 4,000 of Ceiba's 18,000 residents from their homes, most of whom were agregados, families that had no legal title to their land, but held centuries-old traditional de facto rights instead. Other common malice accompanying

1080-638: The busiest in the Caribbean. Part of the Port of San Juan , they are on the Islet of San Juan Bautista at the entrance to San António Channel. Three bridges between the islet and the mainland cross the channel, which connects the bay to Laguna del Condado ( Condado Lagoon ) and the Atlantic Ocean . One of these bridges is the historic Dos Hermanos Bridge . Before their construction, the Condado Lagoon

1125-578: The center of Puerto Rico's most significant historical monuments and largest communities. San Juan Bay provides recreation, sightseeing and tourist attractions, and its curved shape offers a variety of docking facilities for watercraft. Because of commercial expansion and environmental stress on the region, the estuary has been the focus of restoration ecology projects. In 2015, the San Juan Estuary Program ( Programa del estuario de la Bahía de San Juan ) began using green flags to mark

1170-551: The city's renovated coastal infrastructure into the bay's shoreline. Isla Cabras Light 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 . Fishing boats were not the only ones to cross the Vieques Passage, but also ocean-going ships. In fact,

1215-550: The colonial period, regardless of its appealing qualities. Pirates and buccaneers , however, discovered the inlet's strategic value and for centuries, the region became known for smuggling and piracy. Even the infamous Puerto Rican pirate, Roberto Cofres í, is said to have used the inlet as an entry point to mainland Puerto Rico from Vieques and Culebra. In 1819, according to a letter from Captain José de Torres, corsairs, apparently South American insurgents (patriots), determined to subvert

1260-503: The condition of the bay's waters. On a map, San Juan Bay appears to connect two adjacent lakes. This impression comes from a neck of land, Puntilla ("small point"), which projects from the Islet of San Juan Bautista into the center of the bay and approaches another protuberance (Punta Cataño) stretching from the other side of a larger island. The illusion demonstrates the bay's irregular shape. Next to Puntilla are docks which are reportedly

1305-651: The construction of the Isla Cabras Light. In 1898, during the Spanish–American War , the U.S. fleet maneuvered near the Isla Cabras, learning first hand the value of its position between the bays of Bahía de Puerca and Ensenada Honda . Soon after replacing the Puerto Rican autonomous government with a military regime, the U.S. picked up the light project as part of its naval expansion in

1350-606: The erections of military bases were the rapid, profound transformation of rural areas, including the growth of prostitution. The Roosevelt Roads base closed in March 2004 under the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program on that date Department of the Navy transferred its property on the eastern end of the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico to the administrative jurisdiction of the Department of Interior as required under

1395-544: The expanse of water between Isla Cabras and Vieques had become an important passway during the long duration of the Spanish colonial rule in Puerto Rico . So, when in 1869 Madrid approved the lighthouse's construction on Isla Cabras, few questioned its wisdom. The initiative was not an isolated event, but part of an island-wide modernization project for "maritime illumination" (es: "Plan de Alumbrado Maritimo en la Isla de Puerto Rico"). Puerto Rico's coasts were coming into

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1440-572: The formation of political parties, the abolition of slavery and environmental legislations like the act to protect the Yunque , among the oldest U.S. National Parks. Though the increasingly liberal local government showed signs of life and interest in developing the island's infrastructure, the overstretched Spanish Empire , embroiled in wars for independence in Cuba and the Philippines , neglected

1485-445: The harbor, there are depths of 5 to 7 fathoms outside of the shore bank, which as defined by the 3-fathom curve, stretches unevenly up to 3/4 mile offshore from the northwestern side of the harbor. Anchorage can be taken in 5 to 7 fathoms in the middle part of Ensenada Honda. The bottom is soft mud. Punta Cascajo is the western entrance point of Ensenada Honda, at 69 feet high with cliffs on the southern side. Punta Cascajo's highest point

1530-577: The idea of a naval complex on the eastern side that would go cross the Vieques Strait and connect Vieques and Culebra to mainland Puerto Rico through the Ensenada Honda in Ceiba. In May 1940, Captain R. A. Spruance, Commandant of the Tenth Naval District , referred to Pettigrew's 1919 report to request a fleet base in the Puerto Rico area. The Second World War and the German submarine threat in

1575-553: The island until they saw a spacious, almost-landlocked bay on the northeastern shore. No indigenous peoples seemed to claim the area, since it was subject to Carib raids. Ponce de León named the body of water the Bay of the Wealthy Port ( Spanish : Bahía de Puerto Rico ). Ponce de León pushed inland and ordered the first Spanish settlement on the island, 3 miles (4.8 km) from the bay. Following de Ovando's suggestion, he named

1620-514: The light with the establishment of fourteen lighthouses of which the Isla Cabras Light was the twelfth in line. At its roots, the project responded to unprecedented political pressure. Accusations against the Crown of abandonment and military upheavals of which the Grito de Lares ("Lares Cry" or "Lares Uprising") was only the best known, marked the year 1868. The following decade saw in Puerto Rico

1665-436: The municipality of Fajardo and establish the town of Ceiba at the side of the bay in 1836. In their official application, the leaders hoped that the inlet of Ensenada Honda would usher an era of prosperous agricultural exports. In 1869, the Spanish colonial government began to pay closer attention to the bay with the planning of a lighthouse on Isla Cabras , which sits at the inlet's entrance. And between 1879 and 1889, it set

1710-523: The native Indian language was called Boriquén, has but a few inferior harbors, except the one called Puerto-Rico"). According to de las Casas, the Indians called their island "Boriquén"; the Spanish called it "San Juan", and its harbor "Puerto Rico". Over time, the island became Puerto Rico and its harbor (and bay) San Juan; the Indian name changed to Borinquen, with no diacritic and an extra n . Although

1755-434: The passage. Traveler's accounts refer to its beauty and powerful light over the waters. In 1937, as part of the changes that Gustaf Dalén affected in the gas and lighthouse technologies, the authorities installed an automated acetylene torch. Six years later, the building was closed and boarded. In 1965 the light was replaced with a range light called "Vieques Southwest Channel Range Front Light". The original structure

1800-402: The proximity of the bay and its port. The city and the bay's entrances were fortified; the bay and its walls isolated the Spanish inhabitants from the rest of the island's population, encouraging a casta . For the last 500 years the bay's most important function has been to link Puerto Rico and the outside world, and detachments of the Spanish treasure fleet connected the island colony to

1845-470: The settlement Caparra . The explorer chose the site because of its proximity to the sea and "to the gold mines and farms of the Toa Valley ". Caparra proved to be an inauspicious venture. Mendicant friars appealed to Ponce de León to move the settlement closer to the bay (and its sea breezes), saying that its present location was lethal to children. The governor was adamantly opposed, since he had had

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1890-725: The settlement was renamed "Ciudad de Puerto Rico". Colonial engineers fortified the islet with walls and castles, connecting it to mainland Puerto Rico with the San Antonio Bridge, and it came to be known as "the walled city". Sixteenth-century Spanish historian and indigenous activist Bartolomé de las Casas described the bay and its surrounding area names different from those presently used: La isla que llamamos de San Juan, que por vocablo de la lengua de los indios, vecinos naturales della, se nombraba Boriquén ... tiene algunos puertos no buenos, si no es el que llaman Puerto-Rico ("That island we call San Juan, which according to

1935-408: The submission of densely populated Taíno kingdoms. The alliance between caciques on the east and the more battled-experience Kalinagos from Vieques and Culebra however, eventually slowed down the Spanish advance and made the eastern coast less appealing to the colonizers. While Spanish colonists established a prosperous harbor on the San Juan Bay , no major port developed on Ensenada Honda for most of

1980-646: Was the bay's narrowest entrance. On the other side, across the Isla Grande peninsula, the bay's interior is shaped like a triangle. It contains the busy Bahía de Puerto Nuevo (New Port Bay), which is closer to inland transportation networks than the Port of San Juan. The bay is fed by the Río Piedras , which empties into the bay via the Canal Martín Peña . The 3.75-mile (6.04 km) channel connects

2025-417: Was to help draft local and federal legislations to appropriate the suitable lands for potential bases. The political and legislative groundwork for the acquisition of military terrain coincided with Puerto Rico's first agrarian reform, which facilitated the relocation of peasant families without property title and purchasing from small-holding owners. Soon after Pettigrew's 1919 report came back to light in 1940,

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