Andros, Bahamas

Encyclopedia : A : AN : AND : Andros, Bahamas

**Andros**

Population:	8,200
Area (km².):	5,957
Capital:	Andros Town

Andros Island is the largest island of the Bahamas at roughly 2300 square miles (6,000 km²) in area and 104 miles (167 km) long and 40 miles (64 km) wide at its widest point. The island has the world's third largest barrier reef, which is over 140 miles long.

The Spanish landed on Andros in 1550 in search of slaves, in the process wiping out the indigenous Lucayan people both by violence and disease. The island was given the name “Espiritu Santo,” the Island of the Holy Spirit, by the Spanish, but is also called San Andreas on a 1782 map. The modern name is believed to be in honour of Sir Edmund Andros, Commander of Her Majesty’s Forces in Barbados in 1672 and Governor successively of New York, Massachusetts, and New England. It is also believed that the island could have been named after the inhabitants of St. Andro Island (St. Andrew or San Andrés) on the Mosquito Coast as 1,400 of them settled in Andros in 1787.

During the 1700s pirates occupied the island. Loyalists and their slaves also settled in Andros in the late 18th Century.

Andros has a population of over six thousand and has the fewest people per unit area of all of the Bahamas. Most of these people live on the east coast of the island in the three major towns on the island; Nicholl's Town, Congo Town, and Andros Town.

The island is filled with natural beauty. It has the second largest barrier reef in the Northern Hemisphere and the third largest in the world, at one hundred and forty miles (225 km) long, and has a drop off of over six thousand feet (1.8 km). The water above the reef averages twelve feet (4 m) deep. There are more than forty square miles (104 km²) of rainforest area and the swamp land that is inhabited by more than 50 species of orchids. Andros is actually made up of two different islands adjoined by these deep swamp lands. Two hundred different types of birds are native to the island.

Unlike most of the Bahamian islands, Andros's interior has been largely free of commercial development for the tourism industry, preserving much of its natural beauty. Current Bahamian tourism efforts refer to it as the least-explored island in the chain. [link]

Much fresh water comes from this island, with about seven thousand US gallons (26 m³) of fresh water being shipped to Nassau a day. Andros has thousands of kilometres of fresh water rivers that come from rain water collected in the many caves in the island's interior.

Andros Island draws thousands of visitors every year. Anglers come from all over the world to fish there. It is said to be "the bonefish capital of the world". Divers come to explore the great reef and all of its coral formations and marine life. There are many hotels and resorts on the island.

Androsia is manufactured in Andros. Androsia is the local type of clothing for the Bahamian people, usually in bright vibrant colors. It is also home of the Bahama Lumber Company which provides all of the Bahamas with lumber for its development.

Andros is also the home of the fabled Chickcharnie, what some believe to be an extinct species of flightless owls.

Andros is hit by a hurricane on average every two and a half years.

South Andros Island, at Tiamo.

Andros, Bahamas

See also