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©2011 Daniel Gafanhoto. All rights reserved.

I have a metallic paper print of this photo in my living room and it looks awesome!

©2011 Daniel Gafanhoto. All rights reserved.

©2011 Daniel Gafanhoto. All rights reserved.

The Santa Teresa Tram is a historic tram line in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, connecting the center city with the primarily residential, inner-city neighborhood of Santa Teresa, in the hills immediately southwest of downtown. It is currently maintained mainly as a tourist attraction, and is nowadays considered a heritage tramway system, having been designated a national historic monument in 1988. The line has a very unusual gauge: 1,100mm (3 ft 7⅓ in). The main line is 6.0 kilometres (3.7 mi) long.

Having run continuously since its opening in 1877, it is one of the oldest street railway lines in the world and, having been electrically powered since 1896, it is the oldest electric railway in all of Latin America. It is also the only remaining metropolitan tram system in Brazil.

The Santa Teresa tram route rises from downtown Rio de Janeiro and follows a circuit of Santa Teresa hill, offering a high-level view of the city. It passes over a 45-metre (148 ft) high Carioca Aqueduct, a former aqueduct constructed in the 18th century and beneath which standard-gauge electric trams used to run. Except for the aqueduct, the route is shared by motor vehicles.

Before the 1960s, Rio de Janeiro trams served the entire downtown area and all near suburbs, but only the Santa Teresa line now remains, running two services.

The tram's fleet is outdated, with only five regular cars, which are almost a century old, still running. The cars are open-sided with wooden cross-benches, leading to street children often hopping on and off for free rides. Electricity to the cars is still provided from overhead trolley poles, and all cars are bi-directional. The cars were built locally by the tramway companies, but several key components were supplied by foreign manufacturers: traction motors from English Electric, controllers from General Electric and trucks by the Peckham Manufacturing Company (Kingston, New York).

The cars and tracks are not in good repair, so the ride is slow and bumpy, though the carriages are regularly repainted in keeping with the tram's heritage image. The ride is good for sightseeing, but besides tourists, there are few regular paying passengers, and so the tramway is increasingly running at a loss and there are doubts regarding its long term future.

Five people were killed and at least 27 injured when a tram derailed in late August 2011. All service has been indefinitely suspended since the accident.

©2011 Daniel Gafanhoto. All rights reserved.

City Hall is the largest municipal building in the United States, containing over 14.5 acres of floor space. It is an architectural treasure inside and out. The public rooms are among the most lavish in the City. The City Council Chamber, the Mayor’s Reception Room, Conversation Hall and the Supreme Court Room are the most ornate. The exterior is covered with sculpture representing the seasons and continents, as well as allegorical figures, heads and masks. All of the sculpture was designed by Alexander Milne Calder, including the 27-ton statue of William Penn atop the tower. The tower was the tallest building in Philadelphia until 1987. Its observation deck, which is open to the public, provides a panoramic view of the city. The present City Hall on Center Square was begun in 1871 and took over 30 years to complete. John McArthur Jr. was the architect and supervised construction with the assistance of Thomas U. Walter. The first floor is built of solid granite — 22 feet thick in some places — supporting a brick structure faced with marble. The 548-foot tower is the tallest masonry structure in the world without a steel frame.
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©2011 Daniel Gafanhoto. All rights reserved.

Sugarloaf Mountain (in Portuguese, Pão de Açúcar), is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the mouth of Guanabara Bay on a peninsula that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean. Rising 396 metres (1,299 ft) above the harbor, its name is said to refer to its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf sugar.

The mountain is only one of several monolithic morros of granite and quartz that rise straight from the water's edge around Rio de Janeiro. A glass-paneled cable car (in popular Portuguese, bondinho - more properly called teleférico), capable of holding 65 passengers, runs along a 1400-metre route between the peaks of Pão de Açúcar and Cara de Cão every 20 minutes. The original cable car line was built in 1912 and rebuilt around 1972/1973 and in 2008. The cable car goes from the base, not the peak of the Babilônia mountain, to the Urca mountain and then to the Pão de Açúcar mountain.

To reach the summit, passengers take two cable cars. The first ascends to the shorter Morro de Açúcar, 220 meters high. The second car ascends to Pão de Açúcar. The Italian-made bubble-shaped cars offer passengers 360-degree views of the surrounding city. Each car takes you only three minute from start to finish. Departures are available every 20 minutes between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm and the fare is US$11 for Morro de Açúcar or US$22 for the whole way to Pão de Açúcar.