El Rompeolas (The Mosquito Pier)

The Mosquito Pier is a mile-long seawall, which is often referred to as the Rompeolas, meaning "wave breaker" or "breakwater." Once onsite you will easily understand the concept. Looking to the east you’ll feel the wind in your face and see the waves breaking against the seawall. Turn around and look the other way and you’ll see tranquil turquoise waters with barely a ripple of waves.

The reason for this is that Vieques lies in the zone of the trade winds. These winds are usually consistent, blowing from east to west. Consequently, the waves arrive from more or less the same direction and break on the eastern side of the Rompeolas leaving the western or leeward side almost perfectly calm, great for snorkeling or anchoring a boat.

History of the pier
In the late 1930s, the threat of war in Europe loomed over the United States of America. Military interests focused on Puerto Rico as a mainstay in the defense of the Caribbean and especially of the Panama Canal.

In 1941, with the permission of the US appointed governor of Puerto Rico, the navy began construction of bases on Puerto Rico and Vieques. Their plan was to construct a sea wall that would extend from Vieques to the Roosevelt Roads Naval Base in Ceiba on the Big Island and to create a naval facility in the Atlantic surpassing even the Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii. The base would be fully equipped and large enough to contain most of the US Atlantic Fleet as well as the entire British Fleet, if and when Great Britain fell to the Germans.

When the navy arrived to begin this massive project, Vieques was in serious trouble economically. The decline of the sugar industry in conjunction with food shortages caused by the war created a condition of massive poverty and rampant unemployment. Thus, despite the shock and consternation caused by the expropriation and the forced relocation of the people living on these lands, the promise of employment on the navy project left the Viequenses with some hope.

In fact, the navy hired 1,700 Viequenses along with 1,000 laborers from the Big Island to build the giant sea wall and to construct concrete weapons storage warehouses called magazines, which were to be cut into the hills of western Vieques and camouflaged by a covering of grasslands.

The workers were paid $2.25 per day. Laborers, working three shifts a day, dug out a mountain and used the dirt and rocks to fill in the sea.

They worked 24 hours a day. There was no rest. There were no objections to allowing this flow of North American money.

This money, for the most part was collected by contractors from the United States and San Juan. Employees came every week from different sections of Puerto Rico. But a good part of the profits remained in Vieques. For two years the town swam in gold. Rents went up three to four times that which was normally paid. People bought fine clothing and treated it without due consideration. Alcoholic beverages were consumed without measure. There were those who would wash their floors with beer and those who would buy a $35 dollar suit on Saturday and wear it on Monday to mix concrete and it would be ruined after two hours. 'The Base is here, and it will bring more,' they would say.
Vieques Antiguo y Moderno, by J. Pastor Ruiz, 1947

The project was stopped in midstream due to two historical events. The German Army had become bogged down in Russia and the tide of the war appeared to have changed in favor of the Allies while the attack on Pearl Harbor challenged the military wisdom of concentrating an entire fleet in one area.

In 1943, the construction of the pier, which was at that time about one mile long, was discontinued. The Viequenses were left worse off than ever. With the massive land expropriations, there was no more sugar industry at all and the ability of the people to at least continue subsistence activities such as having small gardens, raising animals, hunting crabs, fishing, charcoal making and the gathering of coconuts and wild fruits was severely curtailed.

This boom of ready cash, like the fat cows of the Pharaoh's dream, never compensated for many of the setbacks caused by the naval base.

The richest and most fertile lands were expropriated by the navy. The neighborhoods of Tapón, Mosquito and La Llave disappeared. All the neighbors and small landowners left to the new neighborhoods of Moscú and Montesanto. Families that had their little house, cows, a horse and some farmland went on to have nothing more than a makeshift shack, a fistful of coins and the night and the day.

Those that had a garden plot and who lived happily as tenants surrounded by farmlands and fruit trees now live crowded together lacking even air with which to breathe.
(Ruiz)

In 2000, the Mosquito Pier was included in the 4,000 acre transfer of land from the US Navy to the Municipality of Vieques.

Today, the one-mile-long pier is used recreationally as a place to picnic, fish or to simply relax and enjoy the ocean breezes one mile away from shore.

In the late afternoon it is a favorite destination for walkers, joggers and bicyclists.

As of this writing, work is underway at the far end of the pier for the construction of a new ferry terminal.