Rio\'s Most Splendid Street, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
The name of this street is hard to pronounce. You many say it as well as you can, for you need not know it till you go to Rio de Janeiro (r´ d zhå-n´ r). It is the Avenida Rio Branco. You can enjoy its beauty even though you can not pronounce Spanish or Portuguese. The Rio Branco is one of the fine streets of the world. It is to Rio de Janeiro what Fifth Avenue is to New York, or what Michigan Boulevard is to Chicago. It is one and one-fifth miles long and 108 feet wide. It was built only a few years ago. It was therefore laid out through the heart of a city that was already large. This meant that 641 houses had to be torn down to build the avenue. It cost the city almost $8,000,000 to pay for the houses thus destroyed. But it was money well spent. On this street now are important city buildings, beautiful stores and other places of business. Here, for example, are the buildings of the Naval Club, the Central Tram Station, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, the Western Telegraphy Company, the city theater, the National Library, the School of Fine Arts, and the Market. The theater cost $5,000,000. The library has 300,000 printed books, and 100,000 manuscripts. The street was opened on November 15, 1905; that is, on the Independence Day of Brazil. It is named after one of the famous men of the country. Observe the dress of the people and the vehicles. Are they like the dress and the vehicles in cities you know? How large is Rio de Janeiro? What city in the United States is about the same Size? Locate Rio on your map. Point in the direction where you think it is. Keystone ID: 21822 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.