The town is about half a mile wide, inclosed by high walls of masonry, which are very picturesque, and with their portcullis gates and battlements recall vividly to one's mind the description of mediæval times.
The bluff is crowned by Morro Castle, rendered familiar to Americans in the recent war.
San Juan is really quite a beautiful place with straight and narrow streets and many imposing buildings. It has a number of public institutions and colleges, several churches, and seven small parks. Among the latter may be mentioned the Plazuela de Santiago, in which is an excellent statue of Columbus.
It was on the western end of the island that Ponce de Leon built the governor's palace, which is enclosed within the Santa Catalina fortifications, where are also the cathedral, town house and theatre. This portion of the city is now known as Pueblo Viego, and is the seat of an Episcopal see, which is subordinate to the bishop of Santiago de Cuba.
The city is lighted by gas, which is controlled by an English company, and it also has an electric plant under local management.
There is a local telephone company.
There are eleven newspapers of various descriptions, the chief one being La Correspondencia, a local political paper, which has a circulation of seven thousand copies, more than that of all the other papers put together.
The water is obtained entirely from cisterns. About fifty years ago a project was formed to build a reservoir, and the plans were approved by the government. But, with that spirit of procrastination so characteristic of the Spanish, in all public and private walks of life, and which is known as manana, the reservoir has never been completed.
The harbor of San Juan is in almost all respects a very fine one. On the east and south it is surrounded by swamps, and on the west it is protected by the islands of Cabra and Cabrita, which are practically connected to the mainland by sandbars. There are strong fortifications which guard the entrance to the outer harbor.
The inner harbor is spacious and landlocked. It has been dredged to a uniform depth of twenty-nine feet from the docks to the anchorage.