at a glance

eventually, however, cidade nova would enter in decadence after the construction of the president vargas avenue (avenida presidente vargas) - this important avenue transformed this part of town in nothing more than a passageway to the water-front zona sul.

by this time, only factories and its workers settled in the district, and the bondes machado coelho (machado coelho trolley line) was also opened. by the 1940s, the area was in complete decline - and a famous section of the neighborhood was still called the mangue (mangrove). 

yet, a brazilian folksinger and poet named luiz gonzaga began his early career in the mangue - luiz later rose to fame as the king of the baião, a brazilian musical form with rooted in the country's indigenous past.