Sugarloaf cable car celebrates 102nd anniversary

The world's third oldest cable car and Brazil's first ever built, the bondinho, which connects the neighborhood of Urca to the Sugarloaf Mountain, has been in operation for 102 years  on Monday (Oct 27). To celebrate the occasion, the company that owns the cableway gave out to tourists 2 thousand slices of cake.

People paying a visit to this tourist attraction amount from 4 thousand to 8 thousand in peak season (December through February) and special events. The highest number of visitors in a month was registered in December 2012—10,767. Over the course of its 102 years of operation, nearly 40 million people hopped on the cable car—47% of whom international visitors.

The company's Marketing Coordinator Ana Luísa de Castro said that improvements are being made on the facilities, which are expected to be concluded by 2015. “We're changing flooring, reforming restrooms and personnel-only areas, putting up new signs, and restoring the amphitheater and the entrance to the park,” she explained.

The cable car was founded in 1912 by engineer Augusto Ramos. At the time, the enterprise was met with much disbelief, especially from his colleagues at the Engineering Club, who dubbed him mad and sardonically suggested that the car should connect the Sugarloaf to the nearby National Mental Hospital.

The inauguration of the system was brought into the spotlight in and out of the country, as such problems as the difficult access to the area, the lack of a previous project of the same nature, and a shortage of qualified workforce in the country posed major technological challenges to its construction. Later on, Rio natives christened it bondinho, after the then-common bondes, or streetcars.

The attraction captivates visitors from all over the world. Argentinian architect Raúl di Lascio, who is visiting Brazil for the first time, said he was “enthralled” by what he saw. “I really liked the bondinho; it's fairly safe and you can hardly feel it as it makes its ascent. And after it's up there you're faced with an extraordinary landscape. You don't feel like leaving it,” he revealed.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira