Abstract
The theme of this article is Avenida Brasil, in Rio de Janeiro. If Avenida Brasil is the major theme, then the consequences for the city of Rio de Janeiro of constructing the Avenue in the first half of the twentieth century is the object. I start from the assumption that from the construction of the avenue a new structuring axis of the city expanded along the edge of Guanabara Bay, producing a new spatial configuration for the previously uninhabited locality with factories, working class housing, and growing slums. I also discuss the hypothesis that the Avenue has caused the development of an "automobile suburb" or "highway suburb", in contrast to the suburbs bordering train or tram lines, already established from the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries.
Keywords:
Rio de Janeiro; Suburb; Avenida Brasil; City History; Automobile