another important such monument, 33 meters wide and 1,800 meters long, the avendia rio branco rips through the heart of the city in a style inspired by the wide-open avenues of paris. work began on the avenida rio branco in 1904, during the tenure of mayor francisco pereira passos, and was inaugurated a year later, in 1905, becoming part of the old major's legacy that he left on the city - the avenue was originally constructed as a way of introducing rio de janeiro as a significant world capital of the twentieth century, and to display its importance to an international audience. since its opening, many beautiful buildings have been built along its borders, including the teatro municipal and biblioteca nacional.

an infrasrtuctural monumnet of a very different kind, is the bridge rio - niterói- an engineering masterpiece that connects rio de janeiro to neighboring city, niterói, the bridge stretches over 13 kilometers across the guanabara bay - the bridge was inaugurated in 1974, and is considered the most important pre-stressed structure in the americas, consisting of more than 2000 kilometers of cable and contains the largest span continuous straight beam in the world.