Carioca Aqueduct (Arcos da Lapa)
A colonial water pipe that became a tram bridge — and the trams still run.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Rio de Janeiro offline.
Built in 1750 to finally solve Rio's centuries-old fresh-water problem, this aqueduct was designed by Portuguese military engineer José Fernandes Pinto Alpoim, who drew inspiration from Lisbon's Águas Livres Aqueduct. By the late 19th century it had a second life as the bridge for the Santa Teresa Tramway, connecting the city centre to the hillside neighbourhood above — a function it still performs today.
What to look for
- The course spanning the gap between the Santa Teresa and Santo Antônio hills in the Lapa neighbourhood — the aqueduct's most impressive segment
- Santa Teresa trams crossing the top of the structure — the line has operated since the end of the 19th century
- The colonial engineering scale: the aqueduct replaced a piecemeal canal system that took over a century to nearly complete
Located in the Lapa neighbourhood at the centre of Rio; board the Santa Teresa Tramway here to ride up the hill to the Santa Teresa neighbourhood.
Carioca Aqueduct (Arcos da Lapa) is one of 29 sights worth the detour in Rio de Janeiro, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Rio de Janeiro pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Rio de Janeiro
- Christ the RedeemerArms stretched 28 metres wide at the summit of a 700-metre mountain, face turned east to meet the sunrise every morning.
- Maracanã StadiumOn 16 July 1950, 210,850 people packed this bowl to watch Uruguay beat Brazil 2–1 — the largest crowd ever recorded at a football match, and that record still stands.
- Museu NacionalOne fire in 2018 erased 200 years of collecting — 20 million objects, Brazil's oldest scientific institution, mostly gone overnight.
- Estádio Nilton Santos (Engenhão)The stadium that blew six times its construction budget and then hosted an Olympics.
- Arquivo Nacional (Brazilian National Archives)Brazil's paper memory since 1838 — founded as the Imperial Public Archives before the republic even existed.
- Rio–Niterói BridgeEight kilometres of concrete over open water, built so a bay full of ships and two city skylines could coexist.