Gravina Island

For the island in the Chugach National Forest, see Gravina Island (Prince William Sound).
Camp of King Salmon trollers at Vallenar Point, 1902
Map showing location of Gravina Island.

Gravina Island is an island in the Gravina Islands of the Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska. It is 21 miles (34 km) long and about 9.5 miles (15.3 km) wide,[1] with a land area of 94.81 square miles (245.6 km2). The island had a population of 50 people at the 2000 census.

The Spanish explorer Jacinto Caamaño named the Gravina Islands group in 1792. George Vancouver applied the name to Gravina Island itself in 1793. The name honors Federico Carlos Gravina y Nápoli which was originated in the town of Gravina in Puglia, Italy.[2]

Ketchikan International Airport is located on Gravina Island across the Tongass Narrows (½ mile) from Ketchikan and is reached by a ferry service which takes between three and seven minutes and runs at least every half-hour. A bridge to the island was first proposed in 2002. Its high cost, combined with the island's low population, resulted in critics calling it the bridge to nowhere. The U.S. Congress slashed funding in 2005, and permanently cancelled the project in 2015.[3]

  1. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Gravina Island
  2. ^ Wagner, Henry (1937), The Cartography of the Northwest Coast of America to the Year 1800, Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 390
  3. ^ "Macroeconomics: Policy and Practice". www.pearson.com. Retrieved 2024-01-10.