Everything about San Juan Puerto Rico totally explained
San Juan}}
San Juan (from the
Spanish San Juan Bautista, "
Saint John the Baptist") is the
capital and largest
municipality in
Puerto Rico. As of the
2000 census, it has a population of 433,733, making it the
42nd-largest city under the jurisdiction of the
United States. San Juan was founded by
Spanish colonists in 1521, who called it
Ciudad de Puerto Rico ("Puerto Rico City"). In addition to being the oldest city in Puerto Rico it's the oldest European-founded U.S. city, older than even
St. Augustine, Florida. Puerto Rico's capital is the second oldest European-established city in the Americas, after
Santo Domingo, now in the
Dominican Republic. Several historical buildings are located in San Juan; among the most notable are the city's former defensive forts, Fort San Felipe del Morro and Fort San Cristobál, and
La Fortaleza, the oldest executive mansion in continuous use in the Americas.
Today, San Juan serves as one of
Puerto Rico's most important seaports, and is the island's manufacturing, financial, cultural, and
tourism center. The population of the metropolitan area, including San Juan and the municipalities of
Bayamón,
Guaynabo,
Cataño,
Canóvanas,
Caguas,
Toa Alta,
Toa Baja,
Carolina and
Trujillo Alto, is about 2 million inhabitants; thus, about half the population of Puerto Rico now lives and works in this area.
The city has been the host of numerous important events within the sports community, including the 1979
Pan American Games, 1966
Central American and Caribbean Games, 2006
World Baseball Classic and the
Caribbean Series.
History
In 1508,
Juan Ponce de León founded the original settlement
Caparra (named after the province
Caceres,
Spain, the birthplace of then-governor of Spain's Caribbean territories
Nicolas de Ovando), which today is known as the Pueblo Viejo sector of
Guaynabo, just to the west of the present San Juan metropolitan area. A year later, the settlement was moved to a site then called Puerto Rico, Spanish for "rich port" or "good port," after its similar geographical features to the island of
Gran Canaria in the
Canary Islands. In 1521, the newer settlement was given its formal name,
San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico, in honor of
John the Baptist, following the tradition of christening the town with both its formal name and the name which
Christopher Columbus had originally given the island.
The ambiguous use of
San Juan Bautista and
Puerto Rico for calling both the city and the island led to a reversal in practical use by most inhabitants: by 1746, the name for the city (Puerto Rico) had become that of the entire island, while the name for the Island (
San Juan Bautista) had become the name for the city.
San Juan, as a settlement of the
Spanish Empire, was used by merchant and military ships traveling from Spain as the first stopover in the
Americas. Because of its prominence in the Caribbean, a network of fortifications was built to protect the transports of gold and silver from the
New World to
Europe. Because of the rich transports, San Juan became a target of the foreign powers of the time.
The city was witness to attacks from the
English led by
Sir Francis Drake in 1595 and by
George Clifford,
Earl of Cumberland, in 1598. Artillery from San Juan's fort,
El Morro, repelled Drake; however, Clifford managed to land troops and lay siege to the city. After a few months of British occupation, Clifford was forced to abandon the siege when his troops began to suffer from exhaustion and sickness. In 1625 the city was sacked by
Dutch forces lead by Boudewijn Hendricksz, but El Morro withstood the assault and wasn't taken. The English
attacked again in 1797, during the
French Revolutionary Wars, led by
Sir Ralph Abercromby (who had just conquered
Trinidad). His army laid siege to the city but was forced to withdraw in defeat as the
Puerto Rican defenses proved more resilient than those of Trinidad. Various events and circumstances, including liberalized commerce with Spain, the opening of the island to immigrants as a direct result of the
Royal Decree of Graces of 1815, and the colonial revolutions, led to an expansion of San Juan and other Puerto Rican settlements in the late 18th and early 19th century.
In May 1898,
United States Navy ships, among them the
USS Detroit,
USS Indiana,
USS New York,
USS Amphitrite,
USS Terror and
USS Montgomery, commanded by
Rear Admiral William T. Sampson, bombed San Juan during the
Spanish-American War, though the city wasn't occupied. On
July 25, General
Nelson A. Miles landed at
Guánica (in southwestern Puerto Rico) with 3,300 soldiers and took over the island with little resistance. Spain ceded the island to the United States later the same year by signing the
Treaty of Paris.
Camp Las Casas, located in the district of Santurce, served as the main training camp for the Puerto Rican soldiers prior to
World War I and
World War II; the majority of the men trained in this facility were assigned to the
65th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army. This regiment has been active since 1898, and it's still active today. Camp Las Casas was eventually closed down, and in 1950 a public housing project by the name of
Residencial Fray Bartolome de Las Casas was constructed on its former location.
Lieutenant Teofilo Marxuach (Retired as a Lieutenant Colonel), a native of
Arroyo, Puerto Rico, was responsible for the first bullet shot by the American military during World War I, when he ordered the "Porto Rico Regiment of Infantry" to open fire on the
Odenwald, a German armed supply ship, when it was trying to force its way out of San Juan’s bay. This event occurred on
April 6,
1917, the day that the United States declared war on Germany.
Geography
San Juan is located at, and is suitated along the north-eastern coast of Puerto Rico. It lies south of the
Atlantic Ocean; north of
Guaynabo and
Trujillo Alto; east of and
Bayamón; and west of
Carolina. The city occupies an area of 76.93 square miles (199.2 km²), of which, 29.11 square miles (75.4 km²) is water. The majority San Juan's water territory is composed of
San Juan Bay, and of two natural lagoons, the
Condado and the
San José.
Climate
San Juan's climate is classified as tropical marine. San Juan enjoys an average temperature of 82 °F (28 °C) during the year, although or higher temperatures are often felt during the summer, especially if the winds come from the south. In the winter, temperatures can drop to the 60s, though the average winter low is . The coldest temperature ever recorded was on March 3, 1957, and the hottest was on October 9, 1981. Rainfall is well-distributed all year, but the months of February, March and April are the driest. San Juan is a tropical city.
Cityscape
Old San Juan occupies the western end of a rocky islet at the mouth of San Juan Bay. During the 20th century, the main population centers surged well beyond the walls of the old city and onto Puerto Rico's main island, and merged with the existing settlements east and south of Old San Juan. As a result, the city is now composed of a variety of neighborhoods.
Old San Juan
During the Spanish colonial times most of the urban population resided in what is now known as
Old San Juan. This sector is located on the western half of a small island called the
Isleta de San Juan, which is connected to the mainland by two bridges and a
causeway. The small island, which comprises an area of 47 mi² (122 km²), also hosts the working class neighborhood of
Puerta de Tierra and most of Puerto Rico's
central government buildings, including the
Commonwealth's Capitol.
The main central part of the city is characterized by narrow
cobblestone streets and picturesque colonial buildings, some of which date back to the 16th and 17th century. Sections of the old city are surrounded by massive walls and several defensive structures and notable forts. These include the 16th century
Fort San Felipe del Morro and 17th century
Fort San Cristóbal, both part of
San Juan National Historic Site, and the 16th century
El Palacio de Santa Catalina, also known as
La Fortaleza, which serves as the governor's mansion. Other buildings of interest predating the 20th century are the
Ayuntamiento or Alcaldía (City Hall), the San José Church (1523) and the adjacent
Hotel El Convento, the former house of the Ponce de León family known as
Casa Blanca, the
Teatro Tapia, the former Spanish barracks (now Museum of Ballajá), La Princesa (former municipal jail, now a history museum), and the municipal cemetery of Saint María Madgalena of Pazzis, located just outside the city walls. The
Cathedral of San Juan Bautista (construction began in the 1520s) is also located in Old San Juan, and contains the tomb of the Spanish explorer and settlement founder
Juan Ponce de León. Old San Juan, also known as the "old city", is the main cultural tourist attraction in Puerto Rico; its bayside is lined by dock slips for large cruise ships.
Districts
San Juan is subdivided into 18 wards (
barrios), 16 of which fall within the former (until 1951) municipio of Rio Piedras. Eight
barrios are further subdivided in to
sub-barrios, including both
barrios of the former municipio of San Juan.
- Caimito
- El Cinco
- Cupey
- Gobernador Piñero
- Hato Rey Central
- Hato Rey Sur
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- Hato Rey Norte
- Monacillo
- Monacillo Urbano
- Oriente
- Pueblo
- Quebrada Arenas
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- Sabana Llana Norte
- Sabana Llana Sur
- San Juan Antiguo
- Santurce
- Tortugo
- Universidad
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East of Old San Juan lies the upscale tourist oriented neighborhood of
Condado, which occupies land that used to be owned by entrepreneur Pablo Ubarri Capetillo, a Spanish railroad developer and Count of San José de Santurce under the Spanish colonial period. Beaches such as nearby
Ocean Park, popular with swimmers,
surfers and
kitesurfers, are found all along the district's Atlantic coastline which is also the locus of numerous hotels.
Near Condado are two separate business districts,
Santurce and
Miramar. Miramar is mainly a residential area rising south of the Condado Lagoon. It comprises the former
barrio of Miraflores, as well as drained marshland and landfill over which was built San Juan's first airport, the Isla Grande airport, which was renamed
Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airportin honor of Major
Fernando Luis Ribas-Dominicci (USAF).
Miramar now hosts the
Puerto Rico Convention Center as well as some of San Juan Harbor's cruise ship piers. In 2005 Miramar was designated an historical district of Puerto Rico.
Santurce, originally named
San Mateo de Cangrejos (Saint Matthew of the Crabs), was a settlement for freed African slaves during the early days of the city. After Pablo Ubarri sought permission to link San Juan with Río Piedra proper via steam tramway in 1878, the time it took to travel between both points were shortened and thereby stimulated the colonization and growth of the district. At the beginning of the twentieth century an electric trolley was installed, the township was split into three parts, and its main settlement, merged with the city, was renamed using the Spanish spelling of
Santurtzi (
Saint George in Basque), Ubarri's birthplace in
Vizcaya,
Spain. The "Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico" (
Puerto Rico Museum of Art) and other important cultural venues are located in Santurce.
South of Santurce is
Hato Rey, part of the former municipality of Río Piedras. Hato Rey was grazing ground for cattle owned by the royal government (hence its name, the
King's Herd in Spanish) as early as the 16th century,
In the southern part of the city is the socially diversified community of
Río Piedras. Founded in the mid 1850s, Río Piedras was a separate town which hosted sugar cane plantations and the estates of some of San Juan's wealthiest inhabitants (as well as their working class staff). The Spanish colonial governors also had their summer home there on land which eventually gave way to the main campus of the
University of Puerto Rico. In 1951 the municipalities of San Juan and Río Piedras were merged to redefine San Juan's current city limits. Today Río Piedras comprises the largest area of the municipality of San Juan.
and is home to the renowned, traditional “ Plaza del Mercado” (Río Piedras
Marketplace), the main campus and the Medical Sciences campus of the
University of Puerto Rico and the
San Juan Botanical Garden.
Demographics
Racial distribution
Chemical substances (bleach and house cleaning products); medicines;
rum and other beverages;
fertilizers; electric tools;
electronic devices; plastics,
textiles, and food-based products.
Today the capital boasts numerous hotels, museums, historical buildings, restaurants, beaches and shopping centers. In San Juan there are a lot of attractions, for example:
Old San Juan,
Ocean Park, Isla Verde and
Condado.
Places and monuments emphasized in tourism campaigns consist of: Old San Juan, promoting the historic nature of its colonial buildings and narrow streets covered by adoquine, a blue stone cast from furnace slag; they were brought over as ballast on Spanish ships.
The Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico, located in Santurce, specializes in contemporary artwork from locations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The paintings displayed in the permanent exhibition are either acquired by the museum’s administrative personnel or donated by artists and collectors. They are judged by a panel of painters, art critics, and scholars before being displayed.
Other museums such as the
Pablo Casals Museum, the Book Museum, Americas Museum and the National Gallery display historic items and artwork alongside contemporary art. Miscellaneous museums such as the Children’s Museum and the
Bacardi Distillery (also known as the "Rum Cathedral") in nearby
Cataño appeal to different audiences through interactive exhibitions.
Government
As one of Puerto Rico's 78 municipalities, San Juan, has a popularly elected mayor and municipal assembly. The current mayor is the Honorable Jorge A. Santini Padilla and is responsible for appointing a secretary-auditor and a treasurer. The municipal assembly is made up of 17 officials.
San Juan's City Hall or
Casa Alcaldia, is located at 153 San Francisco Street in front of the
Plaza de Armas or Military Square at the center of Old San Juan. It was constructed based on Madrid's City Hall starting in 1604 and was finally completed in 1789.
Law enforcement in San Juan is the joint responsibility of the
San Juan Police Department and the
Puerto Rico Commonwealth Police. The San Juan Police Department was created in 1521 (as the San Juan Municipal Guard which had both military and police functions) and currently employs about 1,000 sworn officers plus civilian staff.
Education
San Juan is influential in the educational aspect of Puerto Rico, serving as location to many universities and colleges. The most prestigious universities in the area include the main campus
UPRRP and the Medical Sciences Campus of the
University of Puerto Rico, the
University of the Sacred Heart, the
Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico, the Ana G. Méndez University System's
Metropolitan University, the Metropolitan Campus of the
Inter American University of Puerto Rico, the
Carlos Albizu University, the
Evangelic Seminary of Puerto Rico and the
Center for Advanced Studies on Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. There are numerous minor colleges located in the city, including the ICPR Junior College, the "Instituto de Banca y Comercio" and the International Junior College, located in Santurce.
In addition to dozens of state-run elementary, junior- and senior-high schools, the San Juan City Government now operates two bilingual schools, including one sports-magnet school, the first municipal-run schools in Puerto Rico.
Most of Puerto Rico's best private schools are located in San Juan, including Robinson and St. John's in the
Condado, Perpetuo Socorro in
Miramar, St. John's Episcopal and Santa Mónica in
Santurce, La Merced and Espíritu Santo in
Hato Rey, San José, San Ignacio and San Antonio in
Río Piedras and Cupeyville in Cupey.
Transportation
The
Port of San Juan is the fourth busiest seaport in the Western Hemisphere, ranked among the top 17 of the world in terms of container movement. It is also the largest home-based cruise port in the world with over a dozen cruise ships plying its docks with new cruise ships either originating or calling at the port every year.
The Metropolitan Area is served by two airports. The
Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, San Juan's primary commercial airport, is located eight miles (12.7 km) from Old San Juan in neighboring Carolina. The airport accommodates more than 30 domestic and international airlines and is the busiest airport in the Caribbean. It is often referred to as "The Gateway to the Caribbean" because it serves as the main connection to the island and the rest of the Caribbean for the United States and vice versa. The second airport in the area is the
Fernando Ribas Dominicci Airport, which is located directly across the Caño San Antonio from Old San Juan in the Isla Grande district. Dominicci Airport is used mainly by general aviation aircraft, charter flights, and some domestic commercial flights. It used to be the city's and also the island of
Puerto Rico's main international gateway until the opening of
Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport. It is now also widely used by the Isla Grande Flight School and Caribbean Flight Center, the only flight schools on the island.
Public transport
Increased investment in public transportation hasn't changed the fact that San Juan is an automobile reliant city and its fast growth has sparked urban sprawl. It is currently served by five limited-access expressways and highways and numerous arterial avenues and boulevards and suffers from severe traffic congestion.
In an attempt to decrease vehicle dependency and road congestion, the City constructed a
metro system dubbed “
Tren Urbano” ("Urban Train"). The 10.7 mile (17.2 km) line connects to sixteen stations. The project, which opened in late 2004, cost 2.25 billion dollars and was more than $1 billion over budget and four years late. Although the Tren Urbano has received less than expected ridership than was originally projected, it has failed to make a significant impact on reducing the city's traffic, besides the fact that 2006 has reported a 7.5% increase in ridership over 2005.
Metropolitan Bus Authority (“Autoridad Metropolitana de Autobuses” or AMA in Spanish) provides daily bus transportation to residents of San Juan, Guaynabo, Bayamón, Toa Baja, Trujillo Alto, Cataño, and Carolina through 30 different routes. Its fleet consists of 277 regular buses and 35 buses for handicapped persons, and its ridership is estimated at 112,000 on work days.
A daily ferry service known as the
Cataño Ferry, (“La Lancha de Cataño” in Spanish) which operates a route across San Juan Bay between Old San Juan and the municipality of
Cataño.
There is a planned project to build a “light interurban rail system” connecting the cities of
San Juan and Caguas.
Health and utilities
The main hospital and medical school in the city of San Juan is "El Centro Medico de Rio Piedras" (Rio Piedras Medical Center). The Medical Center is a conglomaration of Hospitals located in the same place. It has various helicopters in service, allowing patients and people in need of medical attention to be carried to the center from many places around the island.
Sports
Teams based in San Juan have been notably successful in athletic competition. The
Santurce Crabbers won the
National Superior Basketball League championship on 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003 during this period being recognized as a dynasty. The San Juan Senators and the
Santurce Crabbers were the two major baseball teams in the city, winning the championship of the
Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League a total of seventeen times. The Santurce Crabbers are located third among teams with more championships in the
Caribbean Series, winning championships in the 1951, 1953, 1955, 1993 and 2000 editions of the tournament. The city has also been the host of numerous events within the sports community; some examples include:
Has been host of the Caribbean World Series nine times.
Major League Baseball's Montreal Expos played 22 home games at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in both 2003 and 2004. The team also briefly considered moving permanently to San Juan before relocating to Washington, D.C..
Hosted two rounds of the 2006 World Baseball Classic.
Host of the 1974 FIBA World Championship (basketball).
Has been host of the FIBA Americas Championship four times (1980, 1993, 1999, 2003).
The first edition of World Wrestling Entertainment's pay per view New Year's Revolution was held here in January 2005.
The recently-built $28-million San Juan Natatorium is beginning to attract islandwide and regional swim meets, as well winter training by top-rated mainland U.S. colleges and universities, including the United States Military Academy at West Point and the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis.
In July 2007, the San Juan Golf Academy and its golf driving range began operating atop the city's former sanitary landfill in Puerto Nuevo and will eventually include the city's first and only 9-hole golf course.
Professional teams
Sister cities
The following cities have been identified as sister cities by Sister Cities International:
Cartagena, Colombia
Honolulu, Hawaii, United StatesFurther Information
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