Magen’s Bay, VI, United States

Magen's Bay, VI: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Magen's Bay is located on the northern shore of Saint Thomas, in the United States Virgin Islands, a Caribbean territory of the United States. As a submarine cable landing point, it hosts three cables, making it a meaningful node within the broader United States submarine cable network. The cables landing here connect through corridors that link various points within the Americas, operating across both intercontinental and regional scales.

The three cables at Magen's Bay — Columbus-II b, Americas-I North, and Taino-Carib — each reached ready-for-service status in the early 1990s, establishing this location as part of an early wave of submarine cable development in the Caribbean region. While all three cables list the United States as the country context for their other endpoints, they represent distinct routes and lengths, ranging from the short 187-kilometer Taino-Carib to the longer Columbus-II b at 2,068 kilometers.

Cables Landing at Magen's Bay, VI

Columbus-II b is a submarine cable stretching 2,068 kilometers, which reached ready-for-service status in 1994. The cable connects landing points within the United States, forming part of a route that spans a substantial distance across the region.

Americas-I North spans 2,012 kilometers and also entered service in 1994. Like Columbus-II b, it connects locations within the United States along a corridor of comparable length, representing one of the more significant route distances associated with Magen's Bay.

Taino-Carib is the shortest of the three cables at Magen's Bay, measuring 187 kilometers, and is also the earliest to have entered service, with a ready-for-service date of 1992. It connects to other United States landing points over this shorter regional span, serving a more localized link within the network.

Regional Context

Within the United States submarine cable network — which spans 113 cables across 160 landing points — Magen's Bay ranks among the upper tier of landing points by cable count, placing in the top 89% of the country's 167 landing points. Larger United States hubs such as Boca Raton, FL and San Juan, PR each host eight cables, while Hermosa Beach, CA, Kapolei, HI, and Myrtle Beach, SC each host five. Magen's Bay, with three cables, sits at a more modest scale but remains a recognized landing point within the national submarine cable landscape.

Network Role

Magen's Bay functions as a multi-cable terminus, bringing together three separate submarine systems within a single Caribbean landing location on Saint Thomas. All three cables entered service within a narrow window between 1992 and 1994, reflecting a period of concentrated submarine cable buildout in this part of the Americas. The cables collectively enable connectivity across routes ranging from short regional spans, as represented by Taino-Carib, to longer corridors covered by Columbus-II b and Americas-I North.

As a landing point hosting three cables in the United States Virgin Islands, Magen's Bay contributes to the geographic distribution of United States submarine cable infrastructure across the Caribbean, extending the national network into an island territory removed from the continental coastline.