Brazil Blog

Brazil Talk!

Rio de Janeiro Tunnels

Filed under: Ask Us - December 9th, 2005

Your Question

I heard there are tunnels under Rio, is this true and if so can people tour them?

Our Reply

Rio de Janeiro has a huge underground tunnel network, which is arguably the largest underground urban highway in the world. The first tunnels in Rio began appearing in the early part of the 20th century. In fact the first tunnel built connected the Botafogo and Copacabana neighborhoods. At this time donkeys where used to draw trams through the tunnels. Today Rio has more than 30 tunnels which are used by both LRT (light rapid transit) as well as automobiles.

As far as abandoned tunnel tours ( I think this is what you’re really after), we unfortunately don’t know of any. If anyone has heard anything about Rio de Janeiro tunnel tours, please let us know!