Due to its large size, lush forests and mountainous areas, creating large communication routes has always been a challenge in Brazil.<\/p>\n
In the mid-19th century, the English company S\u00e3o Paulo Railway began construction of a funicular in the Paranapiacaba Mountains<\/strong>, in the southeast of the state of S\u00e3o Paulo. This railway line was built to connect the city of Jundia\u00ed with Porto de Santos. The line had to climb 796.6 metres<\/strong>, entering a mountainous area with very dense forest. The funicular was inaugurated in 1867<\/strong>, with two tracks: while a train went up one track, another train went down the second track, thanks to the traction of a steel cable.<\/p>\n The line was built using the Irish gauge of 1,600 mm,<\/strong> running for 8 kilometres through the Serra Velha and 10 kilometres through the Serra Nova. In 1976, the Paranapiacaba funicular was abandoned,<\/strong> following the inauguration, two years earlier, of a new railway line using the rack system. Over time, the forest has engulfed the old funicular,<\/strong> and the humidity of the area has rusted the bridges on this line, leading to the collapse of one of them.<\/p>\n Recently, the Brazilian channel Loucobreck<\/a> posted an interesting exploration of the ruins of this funicular<\/strong> (the video is in Portuguese, you can activate the automatic subtitles in English in the bottom bar of the player):<\/p>\n
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