[3] The Elbow Cays are the westernmost group on the reef, running southwest to northeast along the Straits of Florida.

These northwestern cays gave their name to the whole bank, which is known as Placer de los Roques, in the Spanish language.

I place the Cayo del Agua a little more to the west than Captain Steetz did on the interesting maps that accompany his Instruction nautique sur les Passages à l'île de Cuba, 1825, p.

A tall stone lighthouse was built by the British on the island of North Elbow Cay in 1839 along with some small buildings.

The abandoned lighthouse was briefly reactivated during the 1970s, when Bahamas police set up a post on nearby Cay Sal Island to watch for drug smugglers.