at a glance

All of the central zone of Rio de Janeiro, from Cais do Porto to the current Avenida Beira-Mar and Praça Tiradentes, is located over an area of land-filled wetland. The adverse environment to urbanism required constant landfills and the covering of swamps and lakes, as well as the removal of many islands, mangroves and beaches.

Presented by the    Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, the study O porto e o bonde no início do séculos XX e no início do século XI: novas exclusões? - The port and the tram at the beginning of the 20th Century and the beginning  of the 21st Century: new exclusions? by Alvaro Ferreira, states that The port zone of Rio de Janeiro is formed primarily of the neighborhoods of Saúde, Gamboa and Santo Cristo, and its location gave it a strategic importance in the growth of the city, in the economic, political and cultural spheres, particularly as until the beginning of the 18th Century the city was confined almost entirely to the current central area.

It gains an even greater significance when one takes into account that from its birth, it was the area occupied by laborers and slaves.