Viaduto do Chá
Concrete street bridge over a former toll crossing, spanning a downtown valley once split by a fee-charging viaduct.
This guide to Viaduto do Chá in São Paulo goes back to November 1892, when crossing a brand-new iron bridge over the valley meant paying a gatekeeper at a wooden gate, a toll so resented that people nicknamed the whole structure after the coins it cost. It traces the French lithographer who first dreamed up the crossing, the private company that built it expecting to be paid back trip by trip, and the different rates charged to walkers and to horse-drawn trams. You'll also hear how public anger over the arrangement grew through the 1890s, and about the architect who later redesigned the crossing entirely.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.