Why the Bermuda Triangle Is a Triangle (And Why It's Not Really One)

The Bermuda Triangle is a colloquial region, not a formally defined geographic triangle. Its "vertices" are conventionally:

1. Bermuda (North Atlantic island)
2. Miami, Florida (US mainland)
3. San Juan, Puerto Rico (US territory)

Connecting these points yields a roughly triangular area of ~500,000 sq mi (1.3M km²). But:

• No official boundaries exist—US Board on Geographic Names doesn't recognize it.
• Shape varies by author: some use Bermuda–Miami–Bahamas; others extend to Azores.
• It's a lozenge/rhomboid in most projections; only "triangular" in Mercator.
• The term was coined by Vincent Gaddis (1964 Argosy article); popularized by Berlitz (1974).

So it's called a triangle because three famous points were chosen to frame a mystery narrative—not because of any natural geometric or oceanographic significance. The region is simply a busy, hurricane-prone, Gulf Stream-crossed stretch of ocean.