Satellite image of Guanabara Bay

Guanabara Bay (Portuguese: Baía da Guanabara, IPA: [ɡwanaˈbaɾɐ]) is an oceanic bay located in Southeast Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro. On its western shore lies the city of Rio de Janeiro, and on its eastern shore the cities of Niterói and São Gonçalo. Four other municipalities surround the bay's shores. Guanabara Bay is the second largest bay in area in Brazil (after the All Saints' Bay), at 412 square kilometres (159 sq mi), with a perimeter of 143 kilometres (89 mi).

Guanabara Bay is 31 kilometres (19 mi) long and 28 kilometres (17 mi) wide at its maximum. Its 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) wide mouth is flanked at the eastern tip by the Pico do Papagaio (Parrot's Peak) and the western tip by Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf).

Name origin[link]

The name Guanabara comes from the Tupi language, goanã-pará, from gwa "bay", plus nã "similar to" and ba'ra "sea". Traditionally, it is also translated as "the bosom of sea."

History[link]

Guanabara Bay was first encountered by Europeans on January 1, 1502, when one of the Portuguese explorers Gaspar de Lemos and Gonçalo Coelho^[1] arrived on its shores. According to some historians,^[2] the name given by the exploration team to the bay was originally Ria de Janeiro "January Sound", then a confusion took place between the word ria, which at the time was used to designate a bay or a sound, and rio "river". Anyway, the name of the bay was soon fixed as Rio de Janeiro. Later, the city was named after the bay. Natives of the Tamoio and Tupiniquim tribes inhabited the shores of the bay.

After the initial arrival of the Portuguese, no significant European settlements were established until French colonist and soldiers, under the Huguenot Admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon invaded the region in 1555 to establish the France Antarctique. They stayed briefly on Lajes Island, then moved to Serigipe Island, near the shore, where they built Fort Coligny. After they were expelled by Portuguese military expeditions in 1563, the colonial government built fortifications in several points of Guanabara Bay, rendering it almost impregnable against a naval attack from the sea. They were the Santa Cruz, São João, Lajes and Villegaignon forts, forming a fearsome crossfire rectangle of big naval guns. Other islands were adapted by the Navy to host naval storehouses, hospitals, drydocks, oil reservoirs and the National Naval Academy.

Description[link]

View of Rio de Janeiro from Guanabara Bay

There are more than 130 islands dotting the bay, including:

• Lajes
• Governador – site of Rio de Janeiro's Galeão - Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport
• Galeão
• Paquetá
• Cobras
• Flores
• Fiscal
• Ilha da Boa Viagem
• Villegaignon
• Fundão

The bay is crossed by the mighty Rio-Niterói Bridge (13.29 kilometres (8.26 mi) long and with a central span 72 metres (236 ft) high) and there is heavy boat and ship traffic, including regular ferryboat lines. The Port of Rio de Janeiro, as well as the city's two airports, Galeão - Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport (on Governador Island) and Santos Dumont Airport (on a landfill next to downtown Rio), are located on its shores. The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro main campus is located on the artificial Fundão Island. A maze of smaller bridges seamlessly interconnect the two largest islands, Fundão and Governador, to the mainland.In Guanabara Bay lies an Environmental Protection Area (APA), which is located mostly in the municipality of Guapimirim and given the name of (APA) Guapimirim.

Sunrise over Guanabara Bay from central Rio de Janeiro—the cities of Niterói and São Gonçalo are opposite on the Bay's eastern shore

Environment[link]

Guanabara Bay's once rich and diversified ecosystem has suffered extensive damage in recent decades, particularly along its mangrove areas. The bay has been heavily impacted by urbanization, deforestation, and pollution of its waters with sewage, garbage, and oil spills.

In 2000, a leaking underwater pipeline released 1,300,000 litres (340,000 USgal) of oil into Guanabara Bay, destroying large swaths of the mangrove ecosystem. Recovery measures are currently being attempted, but more than a decade after the incident, the mangrove areas have not returned to life. According to reporter Gabriel Elizondo, who visited the scene of the oil spill in 2010, "The mud is thick, black and lifeless. And it stinks. Dead stumps – what used to be thick green mangrove swamps – protrude out from the mud as far as your eyes see....Nothing is growing here, and I can’t imagine anything growing here in a very long time. It's sad."^[3]

Coordinates: 22°47′26″S 43°09′20″W / 22.790426°S 43.15567°W / -22.790426; -43.15567

External links[link]

• Information Center for Guanabara Bay. State Government of Rio de Janeiro (in Portuguese).

References[link]

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

State of Guanabara
—  Former State  —
Flag Coat of arms
Location of State of Guanabara in Brazil
Coordinates: 22°54′S 43°11′W / 22.9°S 43.183°W / -22.9; -43.183Coordinates: 22°54′S 43°11′W / 22.9°S 43.183°W / -22.9; -43.183
Country	Brazil
Established	1960
Dissolved	1975
Capital and Largest City	Rio de Janeiro
Government
• Governor	Antônio de Pádua Chagas Freitas (last governor, 1971–75)
Area
• Total	1,356 km2 (524 sq mi)
Population
• Estimate (1975)	4,858,000
Demonym	carioca or guanabarino(a)1
Time zone	BRT (UTC-3)
• Summer (DST)	BRST (UTC-2)
ISO 3166 code	BR-GB
^1 Only used in official documents

The State of Guanabara (Portuguese: Estado da Guanabara, IPA: [ɡwanaˈbaɾa]) was a former Brazilian state that existed from 1960 to 1975. It comprised the city of Rio de Janeiro, after the national capital was moved to Brasília in 1960. It was named after Guanabara Bay, which bordered its Eastern coast.

In 1834, the city of Rio de Janeiro became a municipality and was elevated to Imperial capital, but it was not part of any province (as Brazilian states were then called), having special status as the so-called "Neutral Municipality" (Portuguese: Município Neutro). When Brazil became a republic in 1889, the city of Rio de Janeiro remained the national capital and became the Federal District (Distrito Federal), while the surrounding province of Rio de Janeiro became a state, with Niterói as the state capital. So, for a long time there was an odd and confusing situation whereby the city of Rio de Janeiro was not located in the homonymous neighboring state. (An analogous situation exists today in Argentina with the Federal Capital of Buenos Aires and the separate Province of Buenos Aires, as well as in Mexico, with the Mexican Federal District containing the capital Mexico City that is not located in the neighbouring State of Mexico, and also in Washington, which is located in the District of Columbia rather than in the State of Washington.)

With the moving of the national capital to Brasília in 1960, a new Federal District was carved out of the state of Goiás to contain it, while the old Federal District became the State of Guanabara.

Throughout its 15-year existence, Guanabara was a peculiar, even anomalous state in many ways. Comprising only one city (albeit a large one), Guanabara was the smallest Brazilian state. It also had the peculiarity of being the only state that had no municipalities. Although for some practical purposes it was sometimes counted as having one single municipality, and Rio de Janeiro was officially named its capital, there was no mayor, municipal legislature or any other municipal government institutions there: the city of Rio de Janeiro was directly administered by the state government. On the other hand, this also meant that the Guanabara state government had some functions that were normally assigned to municipalities elsewhere, such as regulating urban zoning, inspecting the safety of buildings or issuing licenses for commercial venues, for example.

All these anomalies disappeared in 1975, when the states of Guanabara and Rio de Janeiro merged, retaining the name of Rio de Janeiro. The city of Rio de Janeiro became a new municipality and the capital of the new combined state.