6 THUMS Islands

A set of four artificial islands in San Pedro Bay, Long Beach, California is together known as the “THUMS Islands.” They were built in 1965 to work with the East Wilmington Oil Field and are now the only decorated oil islands in the US. Every island is named in honor of an American astronaut who lost their lives serving NASA. Therefore, the islands have also been known as the “Astronaut Islands” since 1967.

The islands are surrounded by palm trees and blue and white towers. Initially, the islands were built as a part of the city’s beautification project. The aim was to camouflage offshore oil derricks and reduce their noise.

Each of the islands is 10 acres in area and has a perfectly round shape. The architect who worked on the islands was Joseph Linesch, also the architect of Disneyland. Since he was aiming to disguise the oil production, he created waterfalls, screens, landscaping, condo-style camouflage, and colorful lights for the night.

The term “THUMS” stands for oil consortiums that built the islands: Texaco, Humble, Union Oil, Mobil, and Shell. However, they are popularly known as the Astronaut Islands since 1967 when astronauts died in an accident during the preparation of the Apollo I mission. (Source)

7 Danube Island

The long, narrow artificial island, Donauinsel or Danube Island, is located in central Vienna, Austria. It lies between the Danube River and the New Danube Channel, which is primarily used for commuting. The island stretches 21 kilometers in length but is only 70 to 210 meters wide. The place is perfect for recreational, relaxation, and fun activities.

This island with 42 kilometers of beachside was made to reinforce Vienna’s flood-protection system. The second most important reason was to make available facilities for sports and recreational activities.

The place is full of paths made for joggers, cyclists, roller-skaters, and also has many picnic areas, barbeque, meadows, etc. For sports, it has professional playing fields, courts for volleyball and tennis – and of course, executive bars and restaurants.

The Danube Jumping Center on the island is one of the major tourist attractions. It is the world’s biggest trampoline center with 40 individual jumping areas.

Work on this beautiful project started in March 1972 and was completed in 1988. (1, 2, 3)

8 Amwaj Islands

In Bahrain, the Amwaj Islands are a group of artificial islands in the Persian Gulf which were made on the shallow seas. To make the islands was a pioneering project to offer 100% freehold land ownership to expatriates in Bahrain. Now, the place is fit for residential purposes that include developed infrastructure with commercial and residential buildings.

Nearly 2.8 million square meters of Amwaj Islands are situated in Muharraq, Bahrain. The Ossis Property Developers invested $1.5 billion into the project, which was divided into three phases.

The first included the land reclamation which was completed by 2003. The second was the infrastructural development which was completed in early 2005. The last phase was the residential development or installing facilities. In the first quarter of 2006, the first residents of the islands were ready to move in.

The work on the project started in 2002 and came to end in 2006. Towards the completion of the project, the place was fitted with 40-story residential and commercial apartments, a retail mall, a tech theme park, a multiplex cinema, a bowling alley.

Also, there is no shortage of lavish hotels and exciting water sports. Some of these hotels are ART Rotana Hotel, the Grove Hotel, and the Ramada Suites. (1, 2)

9 Thilafushi

In 1992, an artificial island was built on reclaimed coral reefs known as Thilafushi in Male, Maldives. The place is a dumping ground for 31,000 truckloads of garbage annually, which is reused to reclaim land and increase the size of the island. This is the reason why it is also named “Garbage Island.”

Before it became “Garbage Island,” Thilafushi was a lagoon composed of shallow coral reefs. It was the government of Male’s decision to make it the ultimate place for enormous waste produced by their tourism industry.

After this decision, for 20 years, the island was loaded with approximately 330 tons of garbage each day. Consequentially, the island grew at the rate of one square meter per day.

The land is also leased to entrepreneurs who use the deployed waste for multiple industrial activities. However, the indiscriminate dumping of waste at one single place has polluted the surrounding ecology. So many toxic and dangerous substances like lead, oil drums, asbestos, and other noxious metal are just presented to the island regularly.

Nonetheless, dumping garbage on the island has been forbidden by the government since 2011. The garbage is now directly dumped into the sea. (Source)

10 Treasure Island

In 1936-37, the Army Corps of Engineers built a 400-acre artificial island on the shoals of neighboring Yerba Buena Island near San Francisco. Constructed out of mud dredged out of San Francisco Bay, the place has celebrated many inspiring human achievements in art, architecture, engineering, etc. Now it is perfectly fit for residence. 

Originally, the island was made to host the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939-40. The expo was a Glowing Art Deco Magic City with towers, gardens, goddesses, and beautiful light effects. It was held to celebrate the ascendency of California and San Francisco.

As America started preparing for World War II, the US Navy occupied Treasure Island in 1941. Then, 4.5 million personnel were brought there for training and educational purposes.

Training activities continued after the war and ended up until the end of the Cold War. In 1997, it was finally leased to the city of San Francisco. Currently, more than 2,000 people live on the island and enjoy facilities like schools, restaurants, community organizations, etc.

The next aim is to create a sustainably designed residence for 8,000 civilians, which will include all the Yerba Buena Islands. (Source)