Exploring Inside America's Largest Abandoned Military Base (Preparing For Venezuela)

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When I arrived at Roosevelt Roads, I had no idea just how massive this place really was. This used to be one of the largest U.S. Navy bases in the world — a full American city hidden inside Puerto Rico — and it was all abandoned almost overnight. As I explored, I learned the story for myself.

Roosevelt Roads was built in the 1940s during World War II and later expanded through the Cold War. Thousands of Navy personnel and military families lived here. They had their own schools, neighborhoods, supermarkets, hospitals — even their own airport. But everything changed after protests on the nearby island of Vieques, where military training accidentally killed a civilian. That incident sparked huge demonstrations, and by 2003 the Navy shut everything down. In 2004, this entire city was left behind.

Walking through it now feels unreal. I stepped inside an abandoned American Airlines MD-82 still sitting on the runway, explored the naval hospital with old X-ray and CT machines, wandered through a mold-filled supermarket, and even found a 1990s McDonald’s frozen in time. Every building showed what life used to be like before everyone was forced to leave.

By the end, I climbed up to a high vantage point overlooking the whole base — runways, neighborhoods, the coastline, and even the islands where all the controversy began. Standing there, I could finally understand the rise and fall of Roosevelt Roads, and why this giant military city became a ghost town.
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