Río Grande de Añasco

The Río Grande de Añasco is a river in western Puerto Rico. Its source is in the Cordillera Central mountain range west of Adjuntas, and it flows about 40 miles (64 km) westward to its mouth on the Mona Passage 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Mayagüez.^[1] The river flows through the municipalities of Mayagüez, Añasco, San Sebastián and Las Marías.^[2] The taínos called it Río Guaorabo.^[3]

Río Grande de Añasco
The Río Grande de Añasco in the coastal plain, swollen by rain
Native name	Río Guaorabo (Taino)
Location
Commonwealth	Puerto Rico
Municipality	Mayagüez
Physical characteristics
Source
• elevation	3 ft.

History

View of the river from the International Space Station. The coastal city in the right side of the photo is Mayagüez.

In the 1898 Military Notes on Puerto Rico by the U.S. it is written that the "Añasco River is formed by the Lares Mountain ridge. It rises in the eastern extremity of the mountains called Tetas de Cerro Gordo, flowing first northwest, and then west, through the town of its name and thence to the sea."^[4]

It is spanned by the Puente de Añasco, a bridge listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

See also

• Puente de Añasco: NRHP listing in Añasco and Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
• List of rivers of Puerto Rico

References

1. "Los Ríos" (PDF). Hojas de Nuestro Ambiente. Puerto Rico: DRNA. February 1, 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 1, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
2. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Río Grande de Añasco
3. "Boquilla Creek Wildlife Reserve informational Brochure" (PDF). 2011-07-18. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
4. Military Notes on Puerto Rico. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1898. pp. 20–.

Further reading

• Añasco River. The Columbia Gazetteer of North America. Columbia University Press, 2000. (Available online.)

External links

• USGS Hydrologic Unit Map – Caribbean Region (1974)
• Flooding from Río Grande de Añasco during Hurricane Maria in 2017