Cuban infrastructure is significant and includes: massive Spanish fortifications built in principal ports (e.g.
El Morro castles in Havana (1589) and Santiago;
Castillo San Salvador de la Punta; (finished by 1630);
La Fuerza
''La Fuerza'' () is the debut solo and Spanish-language extended play (EP) by American singer Christina Aguilera. It was released through Sony Music Latin on January 21, 2022 as the first part of her ninth studio and second Spanish-language alb ...
(finished 1577); San Carlos de
La Cabaña
''Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña'' (Fort of Saint Charles), colloquially known as La Cabaña, is an 18th-century fortress complex, the third-largest in the Americas, located on the elevated eastern side of the harbor entrance in Havana, ...
the largest in the Americas;
El Principe;
Atares around Havana Bay).
Overview
Railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
s were first built in the late colonial period and finished in the first part of the 20th century. Vital sanitation facilities were constructed in the US period. The Presidential Palace was built between 1913 and 1919 under presidents Gómez y de Menocal, and designed by a group that included architect
Rodolfo Maruri.
The Cuban Capitol was built on older foundations in 1926 during Gerardo Machado's presidency, the building contains the third largest indoor statue in the world; this is the statue of the Cuban Republic, which represents La Patria the motherland, which in the Latin American tradition is female. This statue was sculpted Angelo Zanelli, and the model was "habanera "Lily Válty'.
The central highway (
Carretera Central), which starts in Pinar del Rio and ends in the former province of Oriente, was also constructed during the
Gerardo Machado administration. There are tunnels in Havana under the bay and under the Almendares River, and some highways in the old
Oriente Province,
Via Azul and
Via Mulata, and Havana-Matanzas
Via Blanca, all of which were completed in the second
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (; ; born Rubén Zaldívar, January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as its U.S.-backed military dictator ...
period. The main road into
Baracoa
Baracoa, whose full original name is: ''Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Baracoa'' (“Our Lady of the Assumption of Baracoa”), is a municipality and city in Guantánamo Province near the eastern tip of Cuba. It was visited by Admiral Christop ...
was completed in the 1960s, whilst in the since the late 1980s, causeways have been built out to neighbouring
cay
A cay ( ), also spelled caye or key, is a small, low-elevation, sandy island on the surface of a coral reef. Cays occur in tropical environments throughout the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, including in the Caribbean and on the Great ...
s in order to open them up for tourist development. However, these causeways do not allow seawater to circulate freely and in consequence this has caused significant ecological damage. A complex network of massive dams and complex semi-secret underground fortifications
were built in the present
Fidel Castro period.
In addition there are significant numbers of historic buildings and reinforced concrete high rises built in the Republican period. Statues and other monuments dot the island. Each construction has its own particular story that often relates to important events in the history of the island. For instance, some of the cobblestones that surround the Havana docks were brought in from Sweden, on the return trips of ships smuggling sugar into Britain during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
References
{{Reflist
Economy of Cuba