Río Portugués is a river in the municipality of
Ponce, Puerto Rico
Ponce ( , , ) is a city and a Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The most populated city outside the San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan metropolitan area, Ponce was founded on August 12, 1692Some publ ...
. In the 19th century, it was also known as ''Río de Ponce.'' Twenty-one bridges for motor vehicle traffic span Río Portugués in the municipality of Ponce alone. The river is also known as Río Tibes in the area where it flows through barrio
Tibes in the municipality of Ponce. Río Portugués has a length of nearly and runs south from the
Cordillera Central mountain range into the
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...
. The Portugués is one of the best-known rivers in Ponce because of its prominent
zigzag
A zigzag is a pattern made up of small corners at variable angles, though constant within the zigzag, tracing a path between two parallel lines; it can be described as both jagged and fairly regular.
In geometry, this pattern is described as a ...
ging through the city and its
historical significance. The river is historically significant because the city of Ponce had its origins on its banks. It was originally known as Río Baramaya (Baramaya River). It has its mouth at . This river is one of the 14
rivers in the municipality.
Origin
Río Portugués has its origin in Cerro Guilarte, located the western part of
barrio
''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city delimited by functional (e.g. residential, comm ...
Portugués in the bordering municipality of
Adjuntas
Adjuntas () is a small mountainside Adjuntas barrio-pueblo, town and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in Puerto Rico located in the central midwestern portion of the island on the Cordillera Central, Puerto Rico, Cordillera Central, no ...
, just north of
Ponce, and drains into the
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...
after running for some . The river has a discharge of 16,000 feet
3/second. The
toponymy
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper na ...
, or origin of the name, comes from one of its first settlers, Pedro Rodríguez de Guzman, known as ''el Portugués'' ("the
Portuguese") because his ancestry was from
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
.
[Another source names this early settler "Pedro Perdomo de Guzmán". It is not clear which of the two names is the correct name, or if his name was perhaps Pedro Rodriguez Perdomo de Guzmán or some other variation. See . Rafael Torrech San Inocencio. El Sur a la Vista. Ponce, Puerto Rico. Elsuralavista.com. 14 February 2010.]
Tributaries
Río Chiquito is one of the
tributaries
A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which the ...
of Río Portugués (i.e., Río Chiquito feeds into Río Portugués). In the sectors and sub-
barrio
''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city delimited by functional (e.g. residential, comm ...
s that it traverses, the locals call the river by the name of such sector/barrio. Thus names such as Río Cedro, Río Nuez, Río Moscada, and Río Tibes as the unofficial local name of Río Portugués in the sectors known as Cedro, Nuez, Moscada and
Tibes.
Course of the river
Starting at its origin in Barrio Portugués, Adjuntas, Río Portugués, as it is known locally, begins to form at an altitude of approximately 2,853 feet (870 m) above
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...
. The river then runs in a southerly direction parallel to
PR-10 for most of its trajectory, crossing barrios
Guaraguao,
San Patricio, and
Tibes. It brushes barrio
Machuelo Arriba
Machuelo Arriba is one of the 31 barrios of the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Along with the barrios of Magueyes, Tibes, Portugués Rural, Portugués, Montes Llanos, Maragüez, and Cerrillos (Ponce), Cerrillos, Machuelo Arriba is one of t ...
on its southwestern corner after it crosses PR-10 just west of the intersection of PR-10 and
PR-504, immediately north of the Ponce city limits. From there it enters barrio
Machuelo Abajo and continues south crossing Avenida Betances/Avenida Tito Castro (
PR-14), at a point about half a mile west of the intersection of routes
PR-12 and PR-14. A few hundred feet before the Avenida Betances bridge over Río Portugués in the city of Ponce, the river divides barrios
Sexto, located west of the river, and
Machuelo Abajo, to the east. It continues south crossing Calle Guadalupe, at which point it divides barrio
Quinto to the west and Machuelo Abajo to the east. This point is just west of ''
Club Deportivo de Ponce.'' Several hundred feet further downstream, at Miguel Pou Boulevard–
PR-1 and
Puente de los Leones–
Tricentennial Park, the river divides barrios
Tercero and
San Antón. Further downstream, the river runs immediately west of
La Ceiba Park on Calle Comercio (route
PR-133) in sector Cuatro Calles. After crossing Calle Comercio, Río Portugués divides barrios
Cuarto and
San Anton, and continues its southerly course towards
Avenida Las Américas
Avenida Las Américas, is a major thoroughfare in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Most of its length is signed as Puerto Rico Highway 163 (PR-163). The highway has both of its termini as well as all of its length entirely within the Ponce city limits. I ...
(
PR-163
Puerto Rico Highway 163 (PR-163) is a major two-way thoroughfare in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The road has both of its wiktionary:terminus, termini as well as all of its length entirely within the Ponce city limits. The road runs east to west from it ...
).
The following table summarizes the course of the river in terms of roads crossed. Roads are listed as the river flows from its origin in Ponce's
Barrio Guaraguao in the north to the Caribbean Sea in the south (N/A = Data not available):
Former and current course
For flood control purposes, in the 1970s Río Portugués was diverted by the U.S. Corps of Engineers from emptying directly into the
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...
at
Playa de Ponce to feeding into the Río Bucaná which then empties into the Caribbean Sea. This channelization project started in 1974 and was completed in 1997. It was a multimillion-dollar investment, with just the first phase costing $120 million.
Former course
The former course of Río Portugués, prior to being diverted and channelized by the U.S. Corps of Engineers in the 1970s, followed from the area just north of
Avenida Las Américas
Avenida Las Américas, is a major thoroughfare in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Most of its length is signed as Puerto Rico Highway 163 (PR-163). The highway has both of its termini as well as all of its length entirely within the Ponce city limits. I ...
/
PR-163
Puerto Rico Highway 163 (PR-163) is a major two-way thoroughfare in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The road has both of its wiktionary:terminus, termini as well as all of its length entirely within the Ponce city limits. The road runs east to west from it ...
in a south-southwesterly fashion crossing Avenida Las Américas immediately east of
Hospital Dr. Pila. It then continued south behind the Governmental Center/
Puerto Rico Police
The Puerto Rico Police (PPR; , ), officially the Puerto Rico Police Bureau (, ), is a law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the entire Puerto Rico, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a division of the Puerto Rico Department of Public Safe ...
Ponce Area headquarters, and followed a trajectory almost parallel to Avenida Hostos (
PR-123, formerly
PR-10). It then crossed
PR-2 immediately east of the intersection of Avenida Hostos and Ponce Bypass/PR-2, at the sector called "Caracoles". From there the river used to continue flowing southerly, at one point just edging the area where
Plaza del Caribe now stands. This old course then took a sharp westerly turn and crossed Avenida Hostos, at the now historic
Puente Río Portugués. From this point it continued running south-southwesterly where it (now, since the newly built
PR-52) crossed
PR-52. From here the river flowed another one mile (1.6 km) crossing the low-lying area of Barrio
La Playa at Avenida Padre Noel before draining into the Caribbean Sea about 30 or 40 yards from Avenida Padre Noel, in the area called
Villa Pesquera.
Current course
Once the U.S. Corps of Engineers canalized Río Portugués as it flowed through the city of Ponce, the Corps also diverted its course from a south-southwesterly course to a south-southeasterly course. This diversion started immediately south of the river's intersection with Avenida Las Américas.
From Avenida Las Américas the river now flows, channelized, in a south-southeasterly after crossing Avenida Las Américas about a quarter of a mile east of
Hospital Dr. Pila. After crossing Avenida Las Américas in downtown Ponce, the river comes to the location where in the 1970s it was diverted by the US Corps of Engineers from a southwesterly path to its current southeasterly path. Taking a sharp easterly turn, Río Portugués enters barrio
San Antón, and crosses route
PR-12/Avenida Malecon about one quarter of a mile north of PR-12's intersection with
PR-2. Shortly thereafter the river bends to become southbound and crosses route PR-2, about one quarter of a mile east of PR-2's intersection with PR-12. The river then borders the
Julio Enrique Monagas Family Park on the park's western edge until, still canalized, it feeds into Bucaná River about half a mile south of PR-2. The point where Río Portugués feeds into Río Bucaná is about one quarter of a mile north of PR-52 (a.k.a., Autopista Luis A. Ferré) and can be seen from the southbound side of PR-52.
Bucaná River
After this point Río Portugués is no longer called Río Portugués. It becomes Río Bucaná (Bucaná River) and divides barrios
Playa on its western bank and barrio
Bucaná on its eastern bank. From there the river continues flowing in southerly course as a single canalized river for half-mile, crossing Autopista Luis A. Ferré/
PR-52. Another one mile (1.6 km) of southerly flow and the river empties as a single stream into the Caribbean Sea just east of
La Guancha, safely avoiding most low-laying populated areas.
Uses
Today Río Portugués is one of the most popular rivers for swimming in southern Puerto Rico.
Portugués Dam
In 1986, the U.S. Congress approved funding to build the
Portugués Dam for Río Portugués about northwest of Ponce. Construction began in April 2008 and, when finished, the dam will be the first roller-compacted concrete thick arch dam built anywhere in U.S. soil by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...
. The Cerrillos Dam over
Río Cerrillos was finished in 1992, and had also been approved by Congress in 1986. The cost to build the Portugués Dam is over $192 million.
The dam will consist of a dike of 220 feet high by 1,230 feet wide. It will use 368,000 cubic yards of compressed concrete. As of 22 March 2009, 88 percent of the concrete work had been completed. Its scheduled completion date is 2013. The total investment is $375 million
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...
.
Preservation
In 1971, Mr. and Mrs. Clark Foreman, owners of the Adjuntas property where Río Portugués originates, granted the development rights of their property in Adjuntas to the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico, thereby establishing the first scenic and conservation easement in Puerto Rico. The deed of easement and its restrictive covenants protect a tract of land that includes the headwaters of Río Portugués. Although the title to the land remains with the Foreman family, the easement restricts the use of the land, safeguarding its trees, vegetation, and other natural resources against destruction or alteration in perpetuity. Today, of Río Portugués scenic easement in Adjuntas's humid forest are a protected entity of the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico.
''Hacienda Buena Vista. Río Portugués.''
Fideicomisio de Puerto Rico.
Archeological site
An important archeological finding, labeled "PO-29: Jácana", was made on the banks of the river. Artifacts were transferred to Jacksonville, Florida and then returned to a museum in Puerto Rico.
See also
* List of rivers of Puerto Rico
* Ponce, Puerto Rico
Ponce ( , , ) is a city and a Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The most populated city outside the San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan metropolitan area, Ponce was founded on August 12, 1692Some publ ...
* Portugués Dam
* List of rivers of Ponce
Notes
Footnotes
References
*
External links
Río Portugués during the rainy season
Retrieved January 5, 2011.
Río Portugués in Barrio Playa, before its course was changed to empty by Barrio Bucana
Retrieved January 5, 2011.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portugues, Rio
Rivers of Puerto Rico
Rivers of Ponce, Puerto Rico
Barrio Portugués