Managua have meters. By custom, many Nicaraguans and tourists alike agree on a fare before embarking on the vehicle. There are no railroads that operate in Managua or in Nicaragua. The country's railroads fell into disrepair during the 1980s. The Chamorro government closed the system and sold the cars and rails for scrap. However, the planned FERISTSA system would most likely bypass the capital and give Nicaragua its first-ever international railway. The President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, was presented with a plan to revitalize the city center. The project included the possibility of building a monorail that would cross over the
Managua the Old Cathedral of Managua was designed by Belgian architects, and the iron that was used to shape the core of the cathedral was shipped from Belgium. Construction lasted from 1928 to 1938, overseen by Pablo Dambach, who was a Belgian engineer residing in Managua. The architects had been inspired by the church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, France. The St. James' Cathedral became the first cathedral in the Western Hemisphere to be built entirely of concrete on a metal frame. The cathedral survived the 1931 earthquake, but was heavily damaged during the 1972 earthquake, which eventually led to the construction