US Virgin Islands - St. Thomas Harbor

ST. THOMAS HARBOR, USVI
Red roofs of St. Thomas and historic Charlotte Amalie.

Sent by someone's very kind from USVI to my old address. Terima kasih (thanks) whoever you are :)

U.S. Virgin Islands - St. Croix

St. Croix is the largest of the three tropical U.S. Virgin Islands. With a yearly average temperature of 78 degrees F, this Caribbean island is only 2 1/2 hour jet time from Miami.

Sent by TJ from Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands.

This is from Wikipedia : Saint Croix (/ˌseɪnt ˈkrɔɪ/; Spanish: Santa Cruz; Dutch: Sint-Kruis; French: Sainte-Croix; Danish: Sankt Croix) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States. Formerly the Danish West Indies, they were sold to the United States by Denmark in the Treaty of the Danish West Indies of 1916, in exchange for a sum of US$25,000,000 in gold.

St. Croix is the largest of the U.S. Virgin Islands, being 28 by 7 miles (45 by 11 km). However, the territory's capital, Charlotte Amalie, is located on Saint Thomas.

There are two towns on the island; Christiansted with a population of 2,433 and Frederiksted with a population of 859. The total population of the island as per the 2010 U.S. Census is 50,601[1].

St. Croix is divided into the following subdistricts (with population as per the 2010 U.S. Census):

1. Anna's Hope Village (pop. 4,041)
2. Christiansted (pop. 2,626)
3. East End (pop. 2,453)
4. Frederiksted (pop. 3,091)
5. Northcentral (pop. 4,977)
6. Northwest (pop. 4,863)
7. Sion Farm (pop. 13,003)
8. Southcentral (pop. 8,049)
9. Southwest (pop. 7,498

US Virgin Islands - St. Thomas

St. Thomas U.S.V.I.
The Virgin Islands comprise more than fifty islands and cays. They lie about 1700 miles southwest of New York, 1100 miles southwest of Miami. The terrain varies from lush rolling hills to jagged sandy beaches. Low humidity and constant trade winds keep the temperature an average 79°F. Easy accessibility makes the Virgin Islands an ideal vacation spot.

Sent by Nicole from St. Thomas in US Virgin Islands.

This is from Wikipedia : Saint Thomas (Spanish: Santo Tomás; Dutch: Sint-Thomas; Danish: Sankt Thomas) is an island in the Caribbean Sea and with the islands of Saint John, Saint Croix, and Water Island a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States. Located on the island is the territorial capital and port of Charlotte Amalie. As of the 2000 census, the population of Saint Thomas was 51,181 about 47% of the US Virgin Island total. The district has a land area of 31.24 square miles (80.9 km2).

US Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands
Discovered by Columbus in 1493, they consist of about 60 sun-drenched islands and islets with near-perfect weather and unrivaled tropical scenery. The Virgin Islands are situated in the Caribbean Sea - 80 miles from Puerto Rico, 1000 miles from Miami and 1500 miles from New York.

Sent by Nicole from St. Thomas in US Virgin Islands.

This is from Wikipedia : The Virgin Islands of the United States (commonly called the United States Virgin Islands or U.S. Virgin Islands) are a group of islands in the Caribbean that are an insular area of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.

The U.S. Virgin Islands consist of the main islands of Saint Croix, Saint John, and Saint Thomas, along with the much smaller but historically distinct Water Island, and many other surrounding minor islands. The total land area of the territory is 133.73 square miles (346.4 km2).

As of the 2000 census the population was 108,612, mostly composed by those of Afro-Caribbean descent. Tourism is the primary economic activity, although there is a significant manufacturing sector.

Formerly the Danish West Indies, they were sold to the United States by Denmark in the Treaty of the Danish West Indies of 1916. They are classified by the UN as a Non-Self-Governing Territory, and are currently an organized, unincorporated United States territory. The Islands are organized under the Revised Organic Act of 1954, and have since held five constitutional conventions, the last proposed Constitution of 2009 being rejected by Congress in 2010.

The Virgin Islands were originally settled by the Ciboney, Carib, and Arawaks. The islands were named by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493 for Saint Ursula and her virgin followers. Over the next two hundred years, the islands were held by many European powers, including Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, and Denmark-Norway.

The Danish West India Company settled on Saint Thomas in 1672, on Saint John in 1694, and purchased Saint Croix from France in 1733. The islands became royal Danish colonies in 1754, named the Danish-Westindian islands (Danish: De dansk-vestindiske øer). Sugarcane, produced by slave labor, drove the islands' economy during the 18th and early 19th centuries, until the abolition of slavery by Governor Peter von Scholten on July 3, 1848.

For the remainder of the period of Danish rule, the islands were not economically viable and significant transfers were made from the Danish state budgets to the authorities in the islands. In 1867 a treaty to sell Saint Thomas and Saint John to the United States was agreed, but the sale was never effected. A number of reforms aimed at reviving the islands' economy were attempted, but none had great success. A second draft treaty to sell the islands to the United States was negotiated in 1902 but was narrowly defeated in the Danish parliament.

The onset of World War I brought the reforms to a close and again left the islands isolated and exposed. During the submarine warfare phases of the First World War, the United States, fearing that the islands might be seized by Germany as a submarine base, again approached Denmark with a view to buying them. After a few months of negotiations, a selling price of $25 million (This is equivalent to $428,000,000 in 2010 dollars) was agreed. At the same time the economics of continued possession weighed heavily on the minds of Danish decision makers, and a bipartisan consensus in favor of selling emerged in the Danish parliament.

The Treaty of the Danish West Indies was signed in August 1916, with a Danish referendum held in December 1916 to confirm the decision. The deal was finalized on January 17, 1917, when the United States and Denmark exchanged their respective treaty ratifications. The US took possession of the islands on March 31, 1917 and the territory was renamed the Virgin Islands of the United States. US citizenship was granted to the inhabitants of the islands in 1927.

Water Island, a small island to the south of Saint Thomas, was initially administered by the US federal government and did not become a part of the U.S. Virgin Islands territory until 1996, when 50 acres (200,000 m2) of land was transferred to the territorial government. The remaining 200 acres (81 ha) of the island were purchased from the U.S. Department of the Interior in May 2005 for $10, a transaction which marked the official change in jurisdiction.