The Sugar Loaf cable car, an idea of Brazilian engineer Augusto Ferreira Ramos inaugurated on 27 October 1912, had its ninetieth anniversary in 2002. The first installed in Brazil and the third in the world, it is a major icon of Rio tourism and has become a trademark of the city. From the inauguration to the above-mentioned anniversary it transported 31 million tourists. In December, January, February and July – high season – daily attendance goes to three thousand people.

In the nine decades during which it has operated, the cable car has received tourists from all over the world, including internationally known personalities, authorities and artist, such as Einstein in 1925; former presidents John Kennedy of the United States, José Sarney of Brazil and Lech Walesa of Poland; singers Roberto Carlos and Sting; soccer players Roanldinho and Romário; actors Roger Moore, Robert de Niro, Gina Lollobrigida, Brooke Shields and Sônia Braga, among others.

Safety

Considered to be one of the safest in the world by international agencies of passenger cable cars, it has never had an accident with casualties. The current lines have safety devices with alarm at all points.
Every morning, before receiving the first tourists, the cable cars have a trial run. The route is entirely programmed by electronic equipment that checks 47 safety items.
The tourist complex includes three stations, Praia Vermelha, Morro da Urca and Pão de Açucar which are joined by four cable cars – two going between Praia Vermelha to Morro da Urca and two between Morro da Urca and Pão de Açucar. Urca Mountain (Morro da Urca) is 220m high and Sugar Loaf (Pão de Açucar), 396m high.

Unusual vegetation

The Sugar Loaf is surrounded by vegetation characteristically tropical, with vestiges of the Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlântica) containing native species that have disappeared from other areas of the Brazilian coast. It also boasts rare vegetal species, such as the orchid “laelia lobata” that can only be found in two places on the planet, Sugar Loaf (Pão de Açucar) and Gávea Rock (Pedra da Gávea), both in Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian mountain with the greatest number of climbing tracks (up to 1997 there were 38), the Sugar Loaf is visited daily by hundreds of Brazilian and foreign climbers, mountaineers and ecologists.

Cultural pole

Besides being a tourist and ecological landmark for Rio, the complex has also been a cultural pole. Since the 70s it has housed in the Urca Mountain amphitheater – the Green Shell (Concha Verde) -

musical shows that have launched great talents of Brazilian music to an audience of up to 50 thousand a year. Between 1977 and 1987 it also staged celebrated carnival balls such as the “Sugar Loaf Carnival Ball”. Currently the amphitheater is used for art exhibitions, business conferences, cocktails for the launching of products, dinners and parties.

A challenge to engineering

The cable car history is directly linked to the city’s: its creator, Augusto Ferreira Ramos, imagined an aerial way to the Sugar Loaf in 1908 when he took part in an exhibition at Praia Vermelha to celebrate the centenary of the opening of Brazilian ports to friendly nations.
The Sugar Loaf Company (Companhia Caminho Aéreo Pão de Açúcar) was then founded with a capital of 360 “contos de réis” and in 1910 the construction of the first Brazilian cable car was initiated. “Brazilians and Portuguese worked on it with German equipment and materials, which were transported to the top of the mountains by hundreds of workmen in what was at the time a dangerous and daring engineering operation”, says Maria Ercília Leite de Castro, general director of the enterprise.
The first 575m stage, between Praia Vermelha and Morro da Urca, was inaugurated on 27 October 1912, when 577 people went up on the wooden car with a capacity for 24 passengers. On 18 January of the following year the stage Urca/Pão de Açucar was inaugurated.

In May1969, under the administration of engineer Cristóvão Leite de Castro, the Sugar Loaf Company signed a contract with the Government of the State of Guanabara by which it would double the aerial line with another cable car. The company decided then to install a new and modern cable car service with four cars, each holding 75 passengers. The works, calculated in US$ 2 million and which demanded the removal of three great one-thousand-ton blocks of rock from the top of the Sugar Loaf, took two years to be completed. On 29 October 1972 the cable cars now in use started to operate.

Change of cables

For the Sugar Loaf Company, the celebrations for the 70 years of the cable car service started on June 14 2002, when the complex reopened to the public after 75 days devoted to the change of the cables that according to international recommendations must be changed every 30 years. The company invested US$ 852,000 on the operation.

There were also changes made to improve the quality of service: new glasses and anti-skidding floor for the cars; better lighting, new furniture and landscaping for the stations. The shops were also redone. One example is the restaurant Estação Gourmet, set on a suspended deck, the cuisine under the responsibility of chef Cláudia Vasconcellos. Costumers are invited to enjoy the most beautiful sceneries of Rio while tasting a frozen “caipirinha” (local drink with Brazilian rum) or a glass of wine with sandwiches and delicacies. On Saturdays there is a delicious “feijoada”, typical dish of black beans and meats.

Font: RIOTUR WebSite.

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