Isla de Cabras

Isla de Cabras (Spanish for "goat island") 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 ("Cañuelo Shoal"). 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 ("dry weed point") in the Toa Baja municipality.