Sugarloaf Mountain and Urca Hill Natural Monument Mountain, then an island, on 1 March 1565. The site was chosen to guard the entrance to Guanabara Bay, and the mountain was important as a signalling point. A landfill connected the island to the mainland in 1697, and various buildings were erected to defend the territory, but the Urca urban neighborhood was only built 300 years after the city was founded. The Sugarloaf Mountain and Urca Hill Natural Monument was created by the city of Rio de Janeiro by municipal decree 26578 of 1 June 2006. The objectives are to guarantee green spaces for leisure in a natural area,
Sugarloaf Mountain (Florida) groves. As the citrus industry faded, property on the mountain was rezoned for residential development, with value seen in the mountain's panoramic views of the surrounding area. Other lands abutting the mountain, primarily along Lake Apopka, were preserved with the intention of restoring long absent ecologies. Only a few citrus plantations and vineyards managed to persist to the present day. Sugarloaf Mountain's geology is tied to the formation of Florida's sand ridges, specifically the Lake Wales Ridge. The mountain consists of relict sand ridges and dunes formed in a marine shoreline environment approximately 2 million years ago during the Pleistocene