San Juan Puerto Rico

San Juan today

Aerial view of El Morro. Image courtesy of USAF 1LT Fernandez.

During the 20th century, the main population centers surged well beyond the walls of the old city, onto Puerto Rico's main island, and merged with existing settlements east and south of Old San Juan. As a result, the city now incorporates a diversity of neighborhoods.

East of Old San Juan lies the hotel and condominium filled district of Condado, which lies in land that used to be owned by Pablo Ubarri y Capetillo, Spanish railroad developer and Count of San José de Santurce under the Spanish colonial period. Beaches popular with swimmers and surfers are present all along the district's Atlantic coastline. On December 31, 1986, 97 people died in a fire set by disgruntled employees at the Dupont Plaza Hotel, near the Condado's geographical center.

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 in which San Juan's first airport, the Isla Grande airport (proper name: Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport) was erected. Miramar now hosts the Puerto Rico Convention Center, as well as some of San Juan Harbor's cruise ship piers.

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 Santurce with San Juan proper via trolley in 1878, the township was split in three parts and its main settlement merged with the city and 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) is located in Santurce.

South of Santurce is one of its former barrios, Hato Rey, which 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. Hato Rey 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.

In the southern part of the city is the mostly residential area of Río Piedras. Río Piedras was a separate town, founded in the mid 1850s, 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, in 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 delimit San Juan's current city limits. Today Río Piedras, home to a renowned traditional Plaza Del Mercado, comprises the largest area of the municipality of San Juan.

As with many large metropolitan areas, automobile traffic congestion has been a growing concern in the city which prompted city planners to build a metro system dubbed "Tren Urbano" (The Urban Train) which is now in operation.