San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan with the Luquillo Mountain Range (Sierra de Luquillo) in the background.
Flag Seal
Nickname(s):  La Ciudad Amurallada (The Walled City), Los Capitalinos (The Ones From the Capital), La Losa (The Tile)
Location of San Juan within the island of Puerto Rico Location of San Juan within the island of Puerto Rico
Country	United States
Territory	Puerto Rico
Founded	1508/1521
Government
Population  (2000)[1]
• Total	434,374
Website	http://www.sanjuancapital.com
Anthem – "En Mi Viejo San Juan"

San Juan (IPA: [saŋ hwaŋ]), named after Saint John the Baptist, (Spanish: San Juan Bautista) is the capital and largest city of Puerto Rico. The latest census estimates place the city's population at 433,733, making it the 42nd-largest city under the jurisdiction of the United States.

San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521 and is the oldest city in Puerto Rico as well as in the United States.^[2] Today San Juan serves as one of Puerto Rico's most important seaport,^[3] and is the island's manufacturing, financial, cultural, and tourist center. The population of the metropolitan area (Spanish: area metropolitana), 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; hence about half the population of Puerto Rico now lives and works in this area.^[4]

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),^[5] 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, Canary Islands.^[6] 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.^[7]

San Juan as a settlement of the Spanish Empire, was used by trade and military ships traveling from Spain as the first stopover in the Americas, but also because of its prominence in a network of fortifications built by the Spanish to protect the transportation of gold and silver from the New World to Europe. For these reasons San Juan became a target of the foreign powers of the time.^[8]

The city saw 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.^[9] A few months into the British occupation Clifford was forced to abandon his expedition 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 was not taken. The English returned 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, 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 was not occupied.^[10][11] However, 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.^[12] Spain ceded the island to the United States later in the same year by the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

Geography and urban structure

San Juan is located in the north-east coast of Puerto Rico. The city lies north of Aguas Buenas and Caguas; east of Guaynabo and Bayamón; and west of Carolina and Trujillo Alto.

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

In 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 bridges and a causeway. The small island, which comprises an area of 47 sq. mi. 122 km²., also hosts the working class neighborhood of Puerta de Tierra and most of Puerto Rico's central government buildings, including those of 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.^[13] 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.^[14]

^[15][16] 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.^[17]

Old San Juan, also known as the "old city", is the main cultural tourist attraction in Puerto Rico; its bay side is lined by dock slips for large cruise ships. In 2007, the government of Puerto Rico announced a large expansion project to the bay side piers called the San Juan Waterfront at a projected cost of $1.5 billion, which will include docking space for 60 megayachts, 900 total hotel rooms, 1,850 housing units, over 400,000 square feet of commercial space and a new recreational park.

Other districts

East of Old San Juan lies the upscale tourist oriented neighbourhood 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.^[18]

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 (proper name: Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport). 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.^[19]

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 Piedras proper via steam tramway in 1878, travel times where shortened which stimulated the colonization 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 and 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" (Art Museum of Puerto Rico)^[20] and other important cultural venues are located in Santurce.

South of Santurce is Hato Rey, former municipio 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,^[21] and is now considered the financial center of the island. A section of this district is often referred to as the "Golden Mile" (actually 0.47 miles long) due in part to the many banks and businesses located there.^[21]

In the southern part of the city is the mixed use and 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.^[22] and is home to the renowned, traditional “ Plaza del Mercado” (Río Piedras Marketplace), and the San Juan Botanical Garden. 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.

Climate

San Juan enjoys an average of 82°F (28°C) during the year, although 90°F or higher temperatures are often felt during the summer, especially if the winds come from the south. In the winter, lows can drop to the 60s though the average winter low is 71°F. The coldest temperature ever recorded was 60°F on March 3, 1957 and the hottest was 98°F on October 9, 1981. San Juan has never reached 100°F. Rainfall is well-distributed all year, but the months of February, March and April are the dryest. San Juan is a tropical city.^[23]

Demographics

San Juan constitutes the most populated city in Puerto Rico. The following table shows the population distribution for the municipality of San Juan in accordance with data offered by the U.S. Census Bureau.^[1]

From 1899 to 1950 the municipality of San Juan excluded the township of Río Piedras. For this reason, population data and land area for the period make reference only to the Antiguo and Santurce “barrios", or subdivisions, of San Juan.

The old municipality of Río Piedras constituted the third most populated city of Puerto Rico at the time of its annexation, 1951. Its strategic location south of the capital served as a junction for all the principal ways of transportation of the Island and as a geographical entry to San Juan, which are factors that prompted Río Piedras's dramatic urban development in the 20th century.

Transportation

Public transport

Increased investment in public transportation has not 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^[24] 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”, or Urban Train in English, the 10.7 mile (17.2 km) long line connects to 16 stations.^[25] The project, which began operations in late 2004 cost 2.25 billion dollars and was more than $1 billion over budget and four years late. The “subsidized” Tren Urbano has received far less ridership than was originally projected and has failed to make a significant impact on reducing the city's traffic.^[26]

There is a planned project to build a “light interurban rail system” connecting the cities of San Juan and Caguas.^[27]

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.^[28]

Metropolitan Bus Authority (Autoridad Metropolitana de Autobuses or AMA in Spanish) provides daily bus transportation to residents of San Juan, Guaynabo, Bayamón, Trujillo Alto, Cataño, and Carolina through 30 different routes. Its fleet is comprised of 277 regular buses and 35 buses for handicapped persons, and its ridership is estimated at 112,000 on work days.^[29]

Airports

Puerto Rico is a major transportation hub of the Caribbean, with two airports serving the Metropolitan Area: the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, San Juan's primary commercial airport located nine miles (14km) from Old San Juan in neighboring Carolina which serves more than 30 domestic and international airlines; and Fernando Ribas Dominicci Airport, located directly across the Caño San Antonio from Old San Juan in in the Isla Grande district, used mainly by general aviation aircraft and domestic commercial flights.^[30]

Sports

San Juan has been the host of many important events within the sports community; some examples include:

• Host of the 1966 Central American and Caribbean Games.^[31]
• Host of the 1979 Pan American Games.^[32]

• Has been host of the Caribbean World Series nine times.^[33]
• Major League Baseball's Montreal Expos played 22 home games at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in both 2003 and 2004.^[34]
• Hosted two rounds of the 2006 World Baseball Classic.^[35]

• Host of the 1974 Fiba World Championship (basketball).^[36]
• 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.^[37]

Professional Teams

The following table includes present and past teams wich operated in San Juan and its sub divisions

Notable residents

San Juan has been the birth place to many notable artists, politicians, scientists and sportsmen; locally referred to as "Sanjuaneros". These include:

Sister Cities

• Cartagena, Colombia
• Honolulu, Hawaii^[39]

References

External links

Government

• City of San Juan

Art

• San Juan mural poem reflecting on the capital

Directories, news and travel

• National Park Service - San Juan

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Newspapers

• Template:En icon The San Juan Star
• Template:Es icon El Nuevo Día
• Template:Es icon Primera Hora
• Template:Es icon El Vocero