Tourism is a major component of the local economy, visitors being drawn to the extensively restored Old San Juan district and the area’s luxury resort hotels (particularly in Condado). banks and corporations maintain offices or distributing centres there. San Juan is the island’s financial capital, and many U.S. Cement, pharmaceuticals, metal products, and clothing are also produced. The San Juan metropolitan area is the largest industrial and processing centre of the island, with facilities for petroleum and sugar refining, tobacco processing, brewing, and rum distilling. Traffic congestion became a serious problem as the city grew, and, in an effort to reduce automobile use, the first line of a regional rapid-transit rail system opened in 2004. In a move to decentralize the old city, many government offices and agencies were moved across the bay, but the governor’s palace has remained in use. By 1980 the San Juan metropolitan area included the surrounding municipalities to the east and west and had about one-third of Puerto Rico’s total population that proportion has grown to two-thirds of the population. In the 20th century San Juan expanded rapidly beyond its walled confines (now known as Old San Juan) to incorporate suburban Miramar, Santurce, and Condado, along the coast, as well as industrial Hato Rey, with its large sports stadium and modern financial district, and the town of Río Piedras, immediately to the southeast. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. territory under the terms of the Treaty of Paris that same year. In May 1898 the guns of San Cristóbal engaged a U.S. The bastions existing today were largely added during the period 1765–83. In response, the fortress of San Cristóbal, the largest Spanish fort in the New World, was built to the northeast, and, from 1634 to 1638, walls were erected across the southern part of the city, facing the harbour. Its fortifications repulsed the English navigator Sir Francis Drake in 1595 as well as later attackers, but George Clifford, 3rd earl of Cumberland, captured it briefly in 1598, and a Dutch force took the city from the landward side in 1625. In the early 16th century San Juan was the point of departure for Spanish expeditions to unknown parts of the New World. San Felipe del Morro castle (also called El Morro) was constructed next, on a high bluff overlooking San Juan Bay. The bulwark-palace known as La Fortaleza, built near Casa Blanca, was the first of the new defenses (it now houses the governor’s mansion). In 1533 the Spanish began construction of massive fortifications in response to attacks by native Taino and by rival European powers. Casa Blanca (“White House”) was begun that same year and was owned by Ponce de León’s family until the late 18th century. In 1521 the settlement was moved to a rocky islet at the harbour entrance. In 1508 the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León founded the original settlement, Caparra, on the almost landlocked harbour just to the west of the present metropolitan area. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!. Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians. SAN JUAN PUERTO RICO MAP POPULATION HOW TO
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |