15 Amazing and Abysmal Man-Made Islands
When we think of islands, our minds are aflutter with images of sandy beaches, fruity cocktail and waiters with accents who inexplicably wear white tuxes. And yet, not all islands are such wonders of nature. Some are wonders of human ingenuity, and others are blunders of the highest degree — not even fit for a swallow to rest its weary wing upon. So do yourself a favor and check this list of amazing and abysmal manmade islands before Apple copyrights the word ‘island’ for its new slander-detecting software.
Spiral Island
Spiral Island was an artificial, floating islet built in a lagoon near Puerto Aventura, south of Cancún, Mexico. It was built by British eco-pioneer Richart “Rishi” Sowa, using discarded plastic bottles as flotation, supporting a plywood and bamboo base, upon which sand was poured. Rishi also planted many plants on the island, including mangroves, which were to grow up to 23 feet (7 meters) over the course of the island’s seven-year existence. It would have stuck around much longer, but Rishi’s prize creation and testament to self-sustainability was Falcon punched into oblivion by Hurricane Emily in 2005. Before its destruction, the island boasted a two-story house, a solar over, a self-composting toilet, and three separate beaches. It boasted all these things after its destruction, too — just in much smaller pieces.
Even though it appeared as though Mother Nature had just guffawed at poor Rishi’s attempts at sustainable living, he drew inspiration from his island companions, the hermit crabs, and decided to move on to something even better. Thus, Spiral Island II was born, a tropical utopia featuring beaches, a house, 2 ponds, a solar-powered waterfall/river, and solar panels. The island is not yet as big as the original Spiral Island, but Rishi has affirmed that it is a work in process, so many have high hope. Rest assured that next time a hurricane rears its punk head, Rishi will be ready to blow it out of the sky with a bamboo granola cannon.
The Island Homes of the Uros People
The Uros people of Peru and Bolivia have found a novel way to deal with annoying neighbors who complain when they play their pan flute too loudly at 3 a.m.: just push their house away with a bargepole while they’re sleeping and watch the hapless morons float away. That’s right – the Uros people live on a cluster of 42 manmade, floating islands on lake Titicaca. Not only is this extremely cool because of the amount of innovation that goes into building a seafaring mobile home, but Titicaca is easily one of the most enjoyable words in the world to say (try it), and they get to say it on a daily basis.
The Uros’ dwellings are made of a combination of dried totora leaves and sheer willpower, though the Uros are not against incorporating modern technology into the design of their homes. Some of the islands have motors attached, some have solar TVs, and the main island even has its own radio station! The amount of technology the Uros are able to cram on such a seemingly primitive reed-island is simply mind-boggling. Think of it this way: in a normal home, if you have a problem with your plumbing you have to suck it up and crap at your neighbor’s house for a few days. In Uros-land, your house freakin’ sinks.
Donauinselt
Donauinsel, meaning ‘Danube Island’ in German, is a small manmade island in the (you guessed it) Danube river, specifically the section of the waterway that runs through Vienna, Austria. The Island was created between 1972 and 1988 as a measure of flood protection. The island provides a barrier, creating as new water basin that can act as a reservoir if the Danube is ever to become flooded. Because of that role, the island has an unusual shape, being a strip 13.1 miles (21.1 km) in length with a varied width of 230-690 feet (70–210 metres).
However, despite the purely protective nature of its genesis, Donauinsel is primarily known today as a popular relaxation spot for the Viennese and tourists alike. It is one of the few easily-accessible and substantial green patches in Vienna, and is home to a pleasing variety of restaurants, nightclubs, and bars. It is famous for hosting the Donauinselfest, the largest annual open-air festival in Europe. The website for the festival proudly claims that the event has been graced by over three million visitors and there has yet to be a ‘major incident.’ Hmmm, sounds almost like an invitation.
Our Lady of the Rocks
Our Lady of the Rocks is an islet in the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro, which sounds like a good hideout for a super villain of some sort. The amazing thing about this manmade island is that it had been constructed over centuries. According to popular legend, its genesis came when a group of sailors found an icon of the Madonna and Child emblazoned on a rock in the sea. From this point on, they did what any logical group of hopeful island-builders would: they began sinking old ships and vessels seized from enemies with rocks, building from the ocean floor up. If this sounds like a haphazard and infeasible way to go about constructing an island, consider that the only structure on Our Lady of the Rocks is a Roman Catholic Church for which the islet is named. Maybe they were trying to thank somebody for not letting their creation topple or sink. If you’re worried about the longevity of said church, don’t – it’s been there since 1722.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about Our Lady of the Rocks is that its construction continues to this day. On every July second, an event called fašinada is held, during which locals take to the bay and dump a bumper crop of rocks on the borders of the island, thus increasing its dimensions. The island has been in construction since 1452, forty years before Columbus set foot in the New World. Now that’s work in progress.
Palm Jumeirah
Dubai is famous as a playground for the rich and tasteless famous, so it’s no wonder that they wouldn’t be satisfied with some little mass of soil or a drab offshore pontoon. Nope, the fellows over in the UAE (that’s the United Arab Emirates, not some obscure wrestling federation) decided to take the idea of paradise to the extreme and fashion a luxurious, sandy island into the familiar shape of a palm tree, that enduring symbol of the tropical vacation in the sun. Forget the fact that once you are on the island (or anywhere besides a space station or high-flying aircraft) you won’t have any way of telling how lovely the island’s curves are — this is a fantastic way to stick to those arrogant space tourists who think they are the only ones paying top dollar for their relaxation time.
Palm Jumeirah cost over $14 billion to build, is the size of 800 football fields, and has its own monorail service (have they learned nothing from The Simpsons?!). It also adds 323 miles (520 km) of shoreline to Dubai, and thus 323 more reasons for us normal people to quietly roll our eyes at the ridiculously wealthy.
Dream Island (Yume No Shima)
Here, we move from a decidedly trashy island to one made entirely from trash. The ironically named Dream Island in Tokyo Bay, Japan was started in the 1960s as a last ditch solution to Tokyo City’s garbage problem. The city was experiencing a massive glut of waste and was finding it hard to come up with a remedy for the problem. Dream Island became home to an amazing myriad of refuse, from coke cans to Daigo Fukuryū Maru, a tuna fishing boat that was accidentally exposed to radiation in the US’s first hydrogen bomb test in the Bikini Atoll.
The citizens of Tokyo gave and gave to Dream Island, and occasionally the island saw it fit to give back. In 1965, an enormous plague of flies tormented most of Eastern Tokyo. As to its origins, you have three guesses and the first two don’t count. Today, the island is almost unrecognizable from its humble beginnings, having been given a facelift even Madonna would be jealous of. It has been covered over with soil and grass, and is home to a sports park, a greenhouse, a beautiful yacht harbor, and a sports stadium. Finally, the island is allowed to live up to the grandeur of its name.
Flagler Monument Island
Flagler Monument Island in Miami Beach, Florida is an Island that was constructed with the sole purpose of honoring the biggest badass in Floridian history: Henry M. Flagler, who was responsible for developing most of the easy coast of Florida and founding both Miami and Miami Beach. Even though this means we have him to thank for Rick Ross, Flagler is pretty damn awesome. Flagler was a partner in Standard Oil with John D. Rockefeller back in the day when being an oil tycoon meant you were a legend — not a jerk. He was responsible for the entire Florida Eat Coast Railway. He did not mess around.
Upon Flagler’s death in 1913, the city of Miami knew it needed to honor its hugest mac daddy properly, and plans were put in motion to build a monument island in Flagler’s honor as part of the Venetian Islands project. In 1920, Flagler Monument Island was finally finished. If you’re wondering about the city’s choice of monument to honor Flagler, it was a huge obelisk… for obvious reasons.
Middelgrundsfortet
You may think Middelgrundsfortet has been standing proudly since the 1890s, but has recently ended it illustrious military career, having been purchased by a private investor in 2002. Let’s just hope that this ‘private investor’ isn’t a criminal mastermind, or we could all be in big trouble – the only real access to the island is by ferry.
The Principality of Sealand
Oh boy, we are really stretching the definition of the word ‘island’ with this one, but it’s definitely worth a mention if for nothing else besides its sheer craziness. The Principality of Sealand is comprised of a single sea fort in the North Sea, off the coast of Suffolk, England. When it was abandoned as a fort following the second world war, it was occupied by a number of people who used the island as a platform to host pirate radio station, which are just like normal radio stations only all of the content is rated ‘arrrrr.’ The most recent and most persistent of these radio pirates was Major Paddy Roy Bates, who took residency of the island in 1967 and set up his own radio station, Radio Essex, named after the classiest county in England.
From this point on, Roy Bates began to descend into complete insanity. He began claiming the island as a nation and designed a flag and coat of arms and began minting his own currency. When some British workmen came to fix a navigation buoy near the island in 1968, he had one of his sons fire warning shots from the fort. They tried to prosecute the lunatic, but because the island was situated outside of British jurisdiction they couldn’t do so much as give him a parking ticket. Another time, he kidnapped a German citizen who was attacking his ‘nation’ and refused his release until Germany sent a diplomat. Before sending the diplomat, the German and Austrian governments petitioned England for the citizen’s release, but they simply cited the 1968 decision, basically saying “no givesies backsies,” but you know, in official speak.
Thilafushi
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If you were to see Thilafushi when it was first built out of white sand in the crystal blue waters of the coast of the Maldives, you‘d probably think, ‘that looks like a nice place to relax with a mimosa and a book about boating or turtles or something.’ Not the municipality of Malé: they decided it would be a good place to dump boatload after boatload of garbage. “What about the old quarry?” “Nah, forget the quarry, this is closer. Plus, everyone loves chasms filled with exploded rock fragments.” Thilafushi was conceived and created as a garbage dump, despite the fact that it looks like the Maldivans could earn enough tourist dollar from it to build a rocket to shoot their garbage to the sun, or at least across to the southern tip of India.
In recent years, the island has been re-designated as a place of industry, and as of the last few years, the tiny island of 106 acres (430,000 m2) has been generating an annual gross revenue of approximately $1 million from industries such as boat manufacturing, cement packing, methane gas bottling, and warehousing. As an interesting side note, wikipedia lists the island’s “Administrative Information,” which doesn’t include a phone number, but does list the island’s fax as +960 6640065. Feel free to draw them a pretty picture.
Ellis Island
This may be a surprise to many of you, but although Ellis Island has its foundation in a real landmass in the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, 83% of the island was created from landfill. The famous inscription on the Statue of Liberty reads: “Give me your tired, your poor/your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Ellis Island, for those who don’t know, is pretty much where all these huddled masses rocked up with their suitcases and high hopes. Ellis island operated as the primary point of immigration to the United States from 1892 to 1954, but it wasn’t until 1934 that the island was expanded to its current size.
The island became a place of myth and legend for those seeking a new life in America. The first person to pass through immigration was a young Irish girl named Annie Moore, who was given a ten dollar American gold piece upon her immigration. Besides young Annie, many notable figures of the early 20th century made their way to the United States though Ellis Island, including composer Irving Berlin, actor Cary Grant, comedian and actor Bob Hope, and director Frank Capra. With all these amazing people passing through Ellis Island and the kindness shown to Annie, its no wonder immigration in the United States is still fueled by that beautiful combination of optimism and pride.
Dejima
Dejima is a Japanese island with a Dutch name. Confused? As we all well know, if there’s something the Dutch love as much as windmills, it’s sailing around in boats and trading things with people. On this same note, if there’s anything the Japanese love more than
The elegant, fan-shaped island was originally constructed as a port of trade with the Portuguese until the Japanese realized they liked raw herring more than dried salted codfish and dissed and dismissed their former mainstay trading nation. When it was first built, the island had the ulterior purpose of constraining foreign traders as part of the policy of ‘sakoku,’ which may sound cute but literally meant that anyone attempting to enter or leave Dejima was subject to punishment by death. Write that one in your Hello Kitty scrapbook.
South Channel Fort
South Channel Fort is a tiny manmade island of the coast of Port Phillip Bay in Victoria, Australia. The island only measures a tiny 400 feet by 249 feet (122 m by 76 m), but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in durability: the island is constructed entirely of tough bluestone boulders, concrete and sand. That’s basically big rocks, solid cement, and little rocks. It’s a good thing the fort was so solid, because it acted as a key player in the oceanic protection of both Melbourne and Geelong, two of Australia’s most populous cities. Construction began on the island in the 1880s.
According to the fort’s official website, South Channel was put in place to “illuminate the channel at night and electronically explode mines under attacking ships coming through the Heads.” Now that is pretty impressive. You can just imagine the soldier sitting there playing battleships for their superior position. Just in case the mine guys were asleep, the island was also equipped with disappearing guns, which sounds pretty frustrating if not downright intimidating. These guns would be used to shoot at ships, then would curl around and disappear into the ground, be reloaded, and repeat the process – not a very attractive prospect for intruders.
The Republic of Minerva
Here we are, once again knock-knock-knocking on insanity’s door with another wacky claimant nation reminiscent of our dear friends at Sealand. The major difference here is that while Major Roy Bates only had around $600,000 to his name, Michael Oliver, the chief proponent of the scheme to fashion Minerva as a nation, claimed to have over $100,000,000 from investors through his Ocean Life Research Foundation. Minerva founded on the Minerva Reef, south of Fiji, on top of two submerged atolls of the same name. Oliver had sand brought in from Australia to build the atolls into island of a livable size.
Minerva was envisaged as an attempt to create a truly libertarian (the mention of this word should stir the pot, but just for good measure – Ron Paul) society with “no taxation, welfare, subsidies, or any form of economic interventionism.” This may have some ring of nobility but it’s more or less just a euphemism for ‘tax haven for the already wealthy.’ The plans to build Minerva into the ‘utopia’ Oliver envisaged eventually fell through. Minerva was the goddess of wisdom, but it looks like she took temporary leave when Oliver came up with this harebrained scheme.
The World
Dubai, the opulent ones that they are, couldn’t bear to only make one appearance on this list. They called us on the phone and straight out demanded that we include another of their mega-islands on our list. We said no. They offered solid gold motorbikes. We said yes. ‘The World’ is a series of tiny islands that loosely resemble the continents of the world. As soon at these little islets were put on sale in 2007 they were snapped up by companies, patriots and idiots alike who were happy to pay as much as $5.5 billion for their country of choice.
When the global financial crisis hit the world, it hit The World just as badly, and a number of deals fell through. The man who bought Ireland, John O’Dolan, committed suicide in 2009 and many of the other investors face the bleak prospect of either a zero return on their investment, or worse still, net losses. Construction on the project has completely halted and many are claiming the islands are merging together and even sinking back into the ocean. Frank Sinatra once sung that he had the world on a string, which is a whole lot better than Dubai’s World on the sea, nothing more than a mucky, sandy glop of God-knows-what in the middle of crisis.