Nassau, << NAS aw >> (pop. 246,329), is the capital and largest city of the Bahamas. The city borders an excellent harbor on the northeast coast of New Providence Island. The city’s warm, sunny climate has made it a major tourist center.
Near Nassau’s harbor are beautiful beaches and luxurious hotels. Nassau also features fine restaurants, colorful markets, and gambling casinos. Most of the city’s major banks, stores, and government buildings are on Bay Street, which runs along the harbor. Nassau has a number of historic buildings, including three forts built in the 1700’s. The nation’s only college, the College of the Bahamas, also is in Nassau.
Many of Nassau’s people work in the tourist industry and are prosperous. The city has few manufacturing industries, and unemployment is high. Some Nassau residents live in charming, pastel-colored houses. But in the city’s older, poorer neighborhoods, people live in run-down houses, some of which have no running water.
Nassau’s busy harbor serves as a port for cruise ships that carry tourists to the city. Smaller ships called mailboats move freight and passengers between Nassau and the many islands that make up the Bahamas. Such products as fish, oil, and rum are shipped through Nassau.
English seafarers founded a settlement named Charles Towne at what is now Nassau in the 1660’s. The settlement was renamed Nassau in 1695. During the late 1600’s, many pirates used Nassau as a base to attack Spanish ships sailing from Cuba or Mexico. The Bahamas became a British colony in 1717, with Nassau as the capital. Nassau became prosperous during the American Civil War (1861-1865), when ships carried goods from the city to the Confederate States. It also prospered during the early 1900’s as a distribution center for the illegal shipment of alcoholic beverages to the United States. Tourism has been Nassau’s principal industry since 1929. That year, commercial airline flights began operating between the United States and Nassau. In 1973, the Bahamas gained independence from the United Kingdom.
