The name Caxangá does not have a very clear origin. Some authors claim that it is a corruption of the tupy word caa-çan-áb, which means extended forest or caa-çang-gua, weeds of the dilated valley, or even caa-ciangá, weeds of the stepmother or godmother.
The current Avenida Caxangá was called the Paudalho Road in the nineteenth century.
According to Pereirada Costa, the engineer Louis Léger Vauthier, in a report from 1843 where he lists the advantages of road construction in Recife, states that it was only in August 1833 ... that the first part of the Paudalho road was started, which from the Madalena square goes to Caxangá, and it was only then that, for the first time, a regularly built road appeared in this Province ...
In 1842, the first section of the so-called Paudalho Road was completed, which was once a path from which several branches went to sugar mills and villages. Previously, cars had never arrived on the site, only horses.
The road has undergone several changes in its structure and denomination. It was also called Estrada do Ambolê, but it always constituted an important artery of the city.
In1845, the Caxangá suspension bridge was built on the Capibaribe River, the first of its kind in Brazil, paving the way for the interior of Pernambuco and greatly contributing to its socio-economic development.
The inauguration of the Caxangá Avenue pavement was on May 25, 1940.
Considered one of the longest avenues in the world in a straight line, it is about 6km long and connects the neighborhoods of Madalena to Caxangá, on the border with the municipality of Camaragibe.
At the time of Estado Novo, during the administration of Mayor Novaes Filho, the avenue was paved with cobblestones grouted with cement on concrete, extended by landfills and protected by works of art (structures such as culverts, bridges, viaducts, retaining walls, necessary for the construction of roads).
In the third administration of Mayor Pelópidas Silveira, Avenida Caxangá was expanded again. In December 1966, there was the inauguration of a second track in reinforced cement, an event that was attended by the then president of the Republic Marshal Humberto Castelo Branco.
Today, one of the most important vehicle traffic and public transport corridors in the west of the city, is the main access to several neighborhoods, including Bongi, San Martin, Cordeiro, Iputinga, Engenho do Meio, Cidade Universitária, Várzea, in addition to municipalities in the metropolitan region such as São Lourenço and Camaragibe.
With a corridor exclusive for buses in its central part, which allows the passage of two collectives at a time, currently has returns to the right and several bus stops in its central corridor.
The traffic lights part was also modernized, eliminating the signs of three times, which allows greater fluidity in traffic, of about 40 thousand vehicles daily.
The trade along the road is quite diverse: pharmacies, banks, bakeries, automobile parts stores, construction material warehouses, gas stations; however, there is a predominance of shops for resale of vehicles and funeral homes. Some believe that the number of mortuaries is due to the fact that there are several hospitals nearby, such as the Barão de Lucena (on the Avenue itself); the Getúlio Vargas, in Cordeiro, and the Hospital das Clínicas, which belongs to the Federal University of Pernambuco and is located in the University City.
In addition to churches and colleges, the Parque Antônio Coêlho (Parque de Exposição do Cordeiro), of the Secretariat of Rural Production and Agrarian Reform, of the Government of the State of Pernambuco, and the Caxangá Golf Country Club, founded on October 7, 1928 and originally called The Pernambuco Golf Club, are located on Avenida Caxangá. Located where the large house of Engenho Poeta once existed, the Club founded by the Englishman George A. D. Litle has the only golf course in the city and a large equestrian track called Maurício de Nassau.
Recife, June 11, 2007.
sources consulted
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LIVRO azul: indicador comercial e profissional. Recife: [s.n.], 1941.
how to quote this text
GASPAR, Lúcia. Caxangá Avenue (Recife, PE). In: PESQUISA Escolar. Recife: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, 2003. Available from: https://pesquisaescolar.fundaj.gov.br/pt-br/artigo/avenida-caxanga-recife-pe/. Access on: Month. day, year. (Ex.: Aug. 7, 2021.)