San Juan Bay

San Juan Bay is a semi-enclosed body of water with an elaborate system of loops, basins and channels at 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,{{cite web | url=https://coastguardnews.com/coast-guard-to-deploy-vessel-of-opportunity-oil-skimming-system-during-training-exercise-in-san-juan-bay/2011/11/08/ | title=Coast Guard to deploy vessel of opportunity oil skimming system during training exercise in San Juan Bay | publisher=U.S. Coast Guard | work=News Report | date=November 8, 2011 | access-date=January 20, 2016}}{{cite journal | url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/296062411/ | title=Sediment Denitrification and Nutrient Fluxes in the San José Lagoon, a Tropical Lagoon in the Highly Urbanized San Juan Bay Estuary, Puerto Rico |author1=Pérez-Villalona, Hamlet |author2=Jeffrey C. Cornwell |author3=Jorge R. Ortiz-Zayas |author4=Elvira Cuevas |name-list-style=amp | journal=Estuaries and Coasts | year=2015 | volume=38 | issue=6 | pages=2259–2278 | doi=10.1007/s12237-015-9953-3| s2cid=84885666 | url-access=subscription }} the estuary has been the focus of restoration ecology projects.{{cite web | url=http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/93f5831f40fc943685257359003f5346/d55f89d6030264db852577ad005ac575!OpenDocument | title=EPA Approves Puerto Rico's List of Impaired Waters: New Pollutants Included for Waters of San Juan Bay Estuary, Rio Bayamon, Rio Grande de Arecibo | publisher=Environmental Protection Agency | work=News Report | date=September 29, 2010 | access-date=January 20, 2016}}{{cite web | url=http://www.epa.gov/urbanwaters/what-communities-are-doing#region2 | title=What communities are doing: Caño Martín Peña, San Juan, Puerto Rico | publisher=Environmental Protection Agency | work=News Report | access-date=January 20, 2016| date=2013-02-25 }} In 2015, the San Juan Estuary Program (Programa del estuario de la Bahía de San Juan) began using green flags to mark the condition of the bay's waters.{{cite web | url=http://www.estuario.org/index.php/tracking-system/92-contenido-general/644-banderas-de-colores-indican-si-son-seguras-las-aguas-de-la-laguna-del-condado | title=Banderas indican si son seguras las aguas de la Laguna del Condado | publisher=Programa del Estuario de la Bahía de San Juan | work=News Report | date=May 2015 | access-date=January 20, 2016}}{{cite news | url=http://www.noticel.com/noticia/175432/banderas-alertaran-condiciones-de-la-laguna-del-condado-galeria.html | title=Banderas alertarán condiciones bacteriológicas de la Laguna del Condado (galería) | work=News Report | date=May 5, 2015 | agency=Noticel | access-date=January 20, 2016 | author=Costa, Juan R. | location=San Juan, Puerto Rico}}

On a map, San Juan Bay appears to connect two adjacent lagoons. 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 the busiest in the Caribbean.{{cite book | title=Strategies for Global and Regional Ports the Case of Caribbean Container and Cruise Ports | publisher=Springer | author=Monie, Gustaaf, Frank Hendrickx, Karel Joos, Lars Couvreur, and Chris Peeters | year=1998 | location=Boston, MA | pages=116–121| doi=10.1007/978-1-4757-6602-8 |isbn = 978-1-4419-5075-8}} 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 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 {{convert|3.75|mi|adj=on}} channel connects the bay to other lagoons and the city of Río Piedras.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2w4JAQAAMAAJ | title=A History of the Harbor Defenses of San Juan, P.R., Under Spain, 1509-1898 | publisher=Puerto Rico Coast Artillery Command | author=Albert Hoyt, Edward | year=1943 | location=San Juan, Puerto Rico | page=144}}

The Spanish conquistadors of the New World thought in terms of urban landscapes and municipal organization. They did not launch their colonization of the Americas 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 the best place to build a settlement, 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 after John the Baptist during his second voyage to the Americas. A frontier with dreaded, cannibalistic natives known as the 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 the main island of Puerto Rico, which was inhabited by the indigenous Taíno people. Boriquén, the native name of the island, would be the second Caribbean island to become part of the Spanish Empire.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jN697bdY8pIC | title=Apuntes para una historia breve de Puerto Rico: desde la prehistoria hasta 1898 |author1=García Leduc |author2=José Manuel | year=2002 | location=San Juan, PR | pages=104–126 | isbn=978-1881715962}}

In 1508, Ponce de León sailed into the Bay of Guanica, on the southwestern corner 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.{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=F6l5AAAAMAAJ&q=Ponce+de+Leon+Guanica+Bahia | title=Guánica: el origen de su memoria |language=es |trans-title=Guánica: The Origin of Its Memory |author1=Arleen Pabón-Charneco |author-link=Arleen Pabón-Charneco |author2=Eduardo A. Regis |name-list-style=amp | year=1997 |publisher=Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office, Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico |location=Guánica, Puerto Rico |pages=9–75 |access-date=September 24, 2024 |via=Google Books}} The adelantado and his small team of hidalgos traversed the unexplored northern coast of 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 reportedly named the body of water the Bay of the Rich Port ({{langx|es|Bahía de Puerto Rico}}).{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gx3fYXyuT6AC&q=%22Bahia+de+Puerto+Rico%22&pg=PA152 | title=La cartografía náutica española en los siglos XIV, XV y XVI | publisher=Editorial CSIC | author=Cerezo Martínez, Ricardo | year=1994 | location=Madrid | page=152| isbn=9788400074005 }}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pHdnAAAAMAAJ&q=Ponce+de+le%C3%B3n+%22Bahia+de+Puerto+Rico%22 | title=Nuevas fuentes para la historia de Puerto Rico ; documentos inéditos o poco conocidos cuyos originales se encuentran en el Archivo General de Indias en la ciudad de Seville, España. | publisher=Ediciones de la Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico | author=Tió, Aurelio | year=1961 | location=San Germán | page=645}}

Ponce de León pushed inland and founded the first Spanish settlement on the island, about {{convert|1.5|mi}} from the bay in the area that today occupies the Villa Caparra suburbs in the Pueblo Viejo barrio of the Guaynabo municipality. Following de Ovando's suggestion, he named the settlement Caparra after the ancient Roman city of Cáparra in Cáceres, the Spanish province where Ovando was born. However, King Ferdinand II of Aragon referred to the village as Ciudad de Puerto Rico (City of Rich Port). The explorer chose the site because of its proximity to the sea and "to the gold mines and farms of the Toa Valley".{{cite journal|url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_q6VhhkczIYSUJqcWVNdjZ2X2M|title="There Is No City Here, but a Desert," The Contours of City Life in 1673 San Juan| author=Stark, David M. | journal=The Journal of Caribbean History | year=2008 | volume=42 | issue=2 | page=257}}

Caparra proved to be an inauspicious venture. Mendicant friars appealed to Governor 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 a house built in Caparra. In 1511, the Spanish Crown appointed a new governor, Juan Cerón, who received royal permission to relocate the village.

The villagers resettled on a {{convert|3|mi|adj=on}} blustery, wooded islet, today San Juan Islet in the capital municipality of San Juan, at the entrance to the bay.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z4eRIu1FB5sC&q=Bah%C3%ADa&pg=PA6 | title=Panorama Histórico Forestal de Puerto Rico | publisher=University of Puerto Rico | author=Domínguez Cristóbal, Carlos | year=2000 | location=San Juan, PR | page=85 | isbn=978-0847702978}} In 1521, the residents completed the resettlement and named the new settlement San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico (Saint John Baptist of Rich Port), but was often commonly referred to Ciudad de Puerto Rico (City of Rich Port).{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=au0MAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Villa+de+Puerto+Rico%22 | title=Documentos históricos de Puerto Rico: 1581-1599 | publisher=Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe | author=Alegría, Ricardo E. | year=2009 | location=San Juan, PR | page=135 | isbn=978-1934461457}}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7AZCAAAAcAAJ&q=%22Ciudad+de+Puerto+Rico%22 | title=Noticias historiales de las conquistas de Tierra firme en las Indias occidentales, Volume 1 | author=Simón, Pedro | year=1626 | location=Madrid | pages=82–84}}{{cite journal | url=http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1929&context=inti | title=La verdadera muerte de Juan Ponce De León | author=Lopez Nieves, Luis | journal=Inti: Revista de Literatura Hispánica | year=1996 | volume=1 | issue=43 | pages=421–435}}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q1a4j2HNmjUC&q=San+Juan+Puerto+Rico&pg=PA417 | title=Historic Cities of the Americas: An Illustrated Encyclopedia | publisher=ABC-CLIO | author=Marley, David | year=2005 | location=. Santa Barbara, CA| isbn=9781576070277 }} Colonial engineers fortified the islet with masonry walls, today the Walls of Old San Juan, and fortresses, like the El Morro and San Cristóbal castles, connecting it to mainland Puerto Rico with a fort and bridge known named San Antonio, today Puente Guillermo Esteves. The city came to be known as "the walled city".{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wN8CAAAAYAAJ | title=Historia geográfica, civil y natural de la isla de San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico |publisher=Impr. y librería de Acosta |author1=Abbad y Lasierra, Iñigo |author2=José J. Acosta. |name-list-style=amp | year=1866 | location=San Juan, PR | page=116}}{{cite journal | url=https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/MILT/article/viewFile/MILT8989110141A/3514 | title=Las fortificaciones históricas de San Juan de Puerto Rico Edit. Universidad Complutense. Madrid, 1989 | author=Zapatero, Juan Manuel | journal=MilitariaRevista de Cultura Militar | year=1989 | issue=1 | pages=141–175}}

Sixteenth-century Spanish historian and indigenous activist Bartolomé de las Casas described the bay and its surrounding area names different from those presently used:{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oJcbQQ-nEZkC&q=name&pg=PA412 | title=Ancient Borinquen: Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Native Puerto Rico | publisher=University of Alabama Press | author=Siegel, Peter E. | year=2005 | pages=xviii | isbn=978-0817352387}}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4mmpBQAAQBAJ&q=Boriqu%C3%A9n+%22Puerto+Rico%22+%22San+Juan%22+history&pg=PA122 | title=The Post-Columbus Syndrome: Identities, Cultural Nationalism, and Commemorations in the Caribbean | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan | author=Viala, Fabienne | year=2014 | pages=122 | isbn=978-1137439895}} 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 the native Indian language was called Boriquén, has but a few inferior harbors, except the one called Puerto-Rico").{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ksx6AAAAMAAJ&q=%22Puerto+Rico%22+inauthor%3ABartolom%C3%A9+inauthor%3Ade+inauthor%3Alas+inauthor%3ACasas&pg=PR6 | title=Historia de las Indias, Vol. 3 | publisher=Imprenta Miguel Ginesta | author=las Casas, Bartolomé | year=1875 | location=Madrid | page=234}}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bp3UAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Puerto+Rico%22+inauthor%3ABartolom%C3%A9+inauthor%3Ade+inauthor%3Alas+inauthor%3ACasas&pg=PA322 | title=Historia de las Indias escrita, Vol. 4 | publisher=Imprenta de Miguel Ginesta | author=de las Casas, Bartolomé | year=1876 | location=Madrid | page=321}} 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.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fr4uAAAAYAAJ&q=boriquen+Borinquen+arrom | title=Estudios de Lexicología Antillana | publisher=Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico | author=Arrom, José Juan | year=2000 | location=San Juan, Puerto Rico | pages=131–138 | isbn=978-0847703746}}

Although the Atlantic winds may have provided a healthier climate on San Juan Islet, moving the settlement from inland to the entrance of San Juan 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.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AcHKOTe7TQ4C | title=Inhabiting Isla Nena, 1514--2003: Island Narrations, Imperial Dramas and Vieques, Puerto Rico | publisher=University of Michigan | author=Cruz Soto, Marie | year=2009 | location=Ann Arbor | pages=56| isbn=9780549510154 }}

By the eighteenth century, the population of the islet had expanded into the modern City of San Juan, largely due to 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 main island's population, encouraging a casta.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RvzLQX-M0dQC | title="Imperial decline and adaptation," a chapter in The Caribbean: A History of the Region and Its Peoples | publisher=University of Chicago Press | author=Scarano, Francisco | year=2013 | location=Chicago | pages=180–183 | isbn=978-0226924649}}

For the last 500 years, the bay's most important function has been to link Puerto Rico and the outside world,{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I_kpAQAAMAAJ | title=San Juan, ciudad de castillos y soldados = San Juan city of castles and soldiers | publisher=National Park Service | author=Flores Román, Milagros, Luis A. Lugo Amador, and José Cruz de Arrigoitia | year=2009 | location=San Juan, P.R | pages=21–25 | isbn=9781934461655}} and detachments of the Spanish treasure fleet connected the island colony to the Spanish colonial network. With its strategic location, it was a target for pirate attacks and a site for imperial great 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.{{cite book | url=http://edicionesdigitales.info/biblioteca/callesdesanjuan.pdf | title=Por las Calles del Viejo San Juan | publisher=Mapfre | author=Barrientos, Andrea | year=2008 | location=San Juan, PR | pages=26–35 | isbn=9780615240947}}

The following list includes historical sketches and maps of San Juan Bay and the colonial city of San Juan Baustista de Puerto Rico, today the Old San Juan historic quarter in San Juan Islet in San Juan, the capital municipality of the archipelago and island. Image:Sketch of the Villa de Puerto Rico.jpg, or Ciudad de Puerto Rico (lower left), and the city of San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico, today Old San Juan (upper left) in San Juan Islet, 1519]]

File:1632 Cardona Descripcion Indias (19).jpg, 1632 (inverted)]]

File:San Juan - De Laet.jpg, 1644]]

File:PuertoRico AtlasBlaeuVanDerHem.jpg and Laurens van der Hem, c. 1660{{Cite web |last=GeoIsla |date=2018-10-05 |title=Mapa holandés de San Juan (s. XVII) |url=https://www.geoisla.com/2018/10/mapa-holandes-de-san-juan-s-xvii/ |access-date=2025-06-03 |website=G E O • I S L A |language=en-US}}]]

File:Port et ville de Porto-Rico dans l'isle de ce nom. LOC 74690593.tif, 1764]]

File:Staat van Amerika, map of San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1766.jpg, 1769]]

File:Plano de la ciudad de S. Juan de Puerto Rico. LOC 2004631685.jpg

File:Plano de Pto. Rico en la ysla de este nombre situado en 18037ʹ de latitd. N. y en 59042ʹ de longd. O. de Cádiz -.jpg

File:Plano de Puerto Rico, situado en la parte septemtrional de la ysla de este nombre, una de las de Barlovento en la lattd. de 18035ʹ y en la longd. de 310038ʹ segn. el meridiano de Thenerife.jpg

File:Nuevo plano de Puerto Rico.jpg

File:Plano de Puerto-Rico ; Plano de la Aguada nueva de Puerto-Rico - Don Tomas Lopez - btv1b53103755g.jpg

File:Plano del puerto de San Juan de Porto Rico - btv1b53103804b.jpg

File:Plan du port de St. Jean de Porto-Ricco... - Francisco Vicente Sanchez - btv1b531036788.jpg

File:Plano del puerto St. Juan de Puerto Rico situado en la costa del Norte... - btv1b53103415p.jpg

File:Geometrical plan of the principal harbour in the island of Porto (sic) Rico -.jpg, 1805 (inverted)]]

File:West Indies, Port San Juan, north side of Porto Rico from a Spanish survey in 1868, corrected to 1874 (8347615722).jpg, 1874]]

File:Ports and forts of San Juan.jpg

File:La_Bahia_de_San_Juan.jpg

File:San Juan Bay Cropped from Admiralty Chart No 478 Plans in Puerto Rico, Published 1954.jpg, 1954]]

File:Puerto Rico, Bahía de San Juan; San Juan Bay, 1992 (LOC).jpg, 1992]]

File:San Juan Bay.jpg

The Port of San Juan is among the busiest Caribbean ports.{{cite web | url=http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staff/news/headline-puertorico.html | title=NOAA's Newest Chart Supports Puerto Rico Maritime Economy | publisher=NOAA, Office of the Coast Survey | work=News Release | date=October 13, 2011 | access-date=December 11, 2015}}{{cite book | title=Caribbean Cruise Ship Study | publisher=General Secretariat OAS | author=Organization of American States. | year=1988 | location=Washington, DC | page=21}}{{cite journal | url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_q6VhhkczIYREdtNElLbVY0a1k | title=The Cruise Industry | author=Gulliksen, Vance | journal=Society | date=August 2008 | volume=45 | issue=4 | pages=342–344 | doi=10.1007/s12115-008-9103-7| s2cid=144437636 | url-access=subscription }} Thousands of fishermen ply 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.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QGqXrZ2rwWUC | title="Liquefaction susceptibility" a chapter in, Active Tectonics and Seismic Hazards of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Offshore Areas | publisher=Geological Society of America | author=Vengesh, James, Jeffrey Bachhuber | year=2005 | location=Austin, Texas | pages=249–262 | isbn=978-0813723853}}{{cite journal | url=http://cohemis.uprm.edu/cacce/pdfs/abs_bauza.pdf | title=The San Juan Bay Estuary and its Initiatives toward a Climate Ready Estuary | author=Bauzá-Ortega, Jorge | journal=San Juan Bay Estuary Program}} A restoration project has returned the bay's water to "safe at contact" status and has integrated the city's renovated coastal infrastructure into the bay's shoreline.{{cite news | url=http://www.elnuevodia.com/estilosdevida/hogar/nota/rutaurbanaparadisfrutardelmar-1305402/ | title=Ruta urbana para disfrutar del mar Redescubre la extraordinaria belleza del mar así como de otros cuerpos de agua en la zona metropolitana | work=News release | date=July 22, 2012 | agency=El Nuevo Dia | access-date=December 14, 2015 | location=San Juan, Puerto Rico}}

File:(View of Morro Castle from across harbor, San Juan, Puerto Rico).jpg|San Juan Bay entrance, seen from Isla de Cabras

File:El Morro looking out.jpg|San Juan Bay entrance, seen from El Morro fortress

File:Castillo San Felipe del Morro 2.jpg|San Juan Bay entrance, seen from La Fortaleza palace

File:San Juan Bay 2.jpg|San Juan Bay entrance, seen from Paseo de la Princesa promenade

File:EAGLE Old San Juan 2014.jpg|U.S. Coast Guard ship entering San Juan Bay

File:Puerto Rico 05.jpg|Cruise ship entering San Juan Bay

File:2013 Old San Juan 01.JPG|Old San Juan, seen from San Juan Bay

File:Atardecer en la Bahia de San Juan.JPG|Sunset at San Juan Bay, seen from Paseo de la Princesa promenade

{{Portal|Puerto Rico|Geography}}

• Battle of San Juan (1595)
• Fortín San Juan de la Cruz

{{Reflist|group=note}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://www.nps.gov/saju/index.htm San Juan National Historic Site]
• [http://www.estuario.org/ Estuario de la Bahía de San Juan] {{in lang|es}}
• [http://www.prfrogui.com/fortune/estuario.htm PRFFrogui: Estuario de la bahía de San Juan] {{in lang|es}}
• [http://edicionesdigitales.info/biblioteca/casablancamoscoso.pdf Casa Blanca: residencia de los decendientes de Juan Ponce de León, colonizador de Puerto Rico] {{in lang|es}}

{{Puerto Rican topics}}

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Category:Bays of Puerto Rico

Category:Geography of San Juan, Puerto Rico