Isla de Cabras


Isla de Cabras is a small islet in the middle of the mouth of San Juan Bay in northeastern Puerto Rico. Part of the Palo Seco barrio in the Toa Baja municipality, the islet is located at the entrance to the Bay, across from the Old San Juan historic quarter in San Juan Islet in San Juan, the capital municipality of the archipelago and island. Home to Isla de Cabras National Park, a recreational area opened in 1957, it contains El Cañuelo fort, which alongside El Morro fortress in San Juan Islet, protected the Bay, the harbor of Old San Juan, from invasion by competing world powers during the Age of Sail. The ruins of a 19th-century leprosy colony and a WWII fort are located in the islet, which also houses a police firing range since 1950. Bacardi’s Cathedral of Rum in the adjacent Cataño municipality is immediately south of the islet.
Surrounded by reefs and shoals, Isla de Cabras originally consisted of the rocky headland in the north of the islet. However, it was naturally connected to El Cañuelo fort by a shoal historically identified as Bajo del Cañuelo. In 1943, this narrow, submerged sandbank was landfilled, elevating the partially underwater fort above sea level and creating a road linking the islet and fort with the main island of Puerto Rico at Punta Palo Seco in the Toa Baja municipality.
File:ISS047-E-811_-_View_of_Earth.jpg|thumb|275x275px|Satellite view from entrance to San Juan Bay between Isla de Cabras in the Toa Baja municipality and Old San Juan historic quarter in San Juan Islet in the San Juan capital municipality to Isla Verde resort area in the Carolina municipality, 2016

History

Spanish Fortification

Due to its strategic location at the entrance of San Juan Bay, Isla de Cabras provided a strategic point for an effective crossfire with Fort San Felipe del Morro to prevent incoming ships from entering. It also provided defenses for the entrance of the Bayamón River on the other side of the islet.

Leper Colony

At the end of the 19th century, a leper colony was established on the island. On December 17, 1876, the governor of Puerto Rico, Segundo de la Portilla, set the first stone of the official building to house lepers, which was completed in 1883. However, it is believed that the colony was established prior to construction of the building.
Upon the occupation of Puerto Rico by American troops in 1898, management of the building was handed over to the government of the island. According to the 1910 US Census, there were 35 people living on the island at that time.
In 1926, a leper asylum was built on the main island next to a church, and the residents of the colony were moved there. However, the original building still stands on Isla de Cabras.

American Fortification

In the 1940s, the United States built Fort Amezquita, a few hundred feet from El Cañuelo. The fort was initially called the "Cabras Island Military Reservation". During World War II this fort served as a "concrete gun battery" for the US Army Coast Artillery Corps. In November 1940 the US Army transferred the barrels of three 12-inch coastal guns from Fort Delaware, Delaware; two of these guns were mounted in the fort as Battery Reed with the third as a spare. They were on long-range M1917 barbette carriages and protected by concrete casemates.

Shooting Range & Recreational Park

In recent years, the grounds that belonged to Fort Amezquita were converted into a shooting range and training area by the P.R.P.D. Ownership of the remaining acres of land were under legal dispute, until they were finally transferred to the Department of Sports and Recreation and opened to the public as the Isla de Cabras Recreational Park, which is equipped with several gazebos and includes a beach for swimming and fishing.