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 every 20 minutes. The original cable car line was built in 1912 and rebuilt around 1972–73 and in 2008. The cable car goes from a ground station, at the base of Morro da Babilônia, to Morro da Urca and thence to Sugarloaf's summit. To reach the summit, passengers take two cable cars. The first ascends to the shorter Morro da Urca, high. The second car ascends to Pão de Açúcar. The Swiss-made bubble-shaped cars offer passengers 360-degree views of the surrounding city. The ascent takes three minutes from start to finish. Visitors can watch rock climbers on Sugarloaf and the