The Mauá Railway (), officially known as the Imperial Petropolis Steam Navigation and Railway Company (), was the first
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
established in
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
and the third in
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
.
History
The railway was built to connect the Mauá Port, at
Guanabara Bay
Guanabara Bay (, , ) is an oceanic bay in Southeast Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Janeiro. On its western shore lie the cities of Rio de Janeiro (city), Rio de Janeiro and Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro, Duque de Caxias, a ...
, and the base of the Estrela mountain, located at the region of the city of
Petrópolis
Petrópolis (), also known as the Imperial City, is a municipality in the Southeast Region of Brazil. It is located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, northeast of the city of Rio de Janeiro. According to the 2022 Brazilian census, Petrópolis mun ...
, state of
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
. The project's main objective was to ease the difficulties of transporting cargo and passengers between the coast of Rio de Janeiro and the state's interior, an important hub for
coffee
Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...
production - one of the main
exports
An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...
of Brazil at the time.
See also
*
Irineu Evangelista de Sousa, Viscount of Mauá
Irineu Evangelista de Sousa, Viscount of Mauá (; 28 December 1813 – 21 October 1889), was a Brazilian entrepreneur, industrialist, banker and politician. Born to a family of small '' estancieiros'' (ranchers), Sousa became one of the world' ...
References
History of Brazil
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