Midway Atoll

Other names: Brook Island, Middlebrook Islands, Pihemanu

Geography: Two large and one small coral island inside a roughly circular reef.

Distance from Honolulu: 1,310 miles

Highest point: 12 feet

Type of island: Atoll

Acreage dry land: 1,550 acres

Coral reef within 13.8 miles: 88,457 acres

History: Capt. N.B. Brooks sighted the island in 1859 aboard the Honolulu ship Gambia, and claimed it for the United States. A transpacific cable station was established here in the early 1900s, and Pan American Airways put in a mid-Pacific stop here in 1935. The islands are best known as the site of the battle that turned World War II in the Pacific to the allied forces.

Biology notes: Midway hosts the largest breeding population of Laysan albatross in the world and the second-largest population of black-footed albatross.