The engineer Augusto Ramos, a native from Rio de Janeiro, found locals investors and daring entrepreneurs in Brazil to fund the project that would be built only by Brazilian engineers and capital. The entrepreneurs showed the government the importance of the project by stressing the fact that 1) it would be good for the image of Rio, 2) it would be the first cable car system in Brazil, and 3) it would show off Brazilian engineering competences (Brazil was considered technologically undeveloped at the time). The government then bought into the idea, and exempted the Sugar Loaf’s cable cars from import taxes.
Sugar Loaf’s cable cars were built by Companhia Caminho Aéreo do Pão de Açúcar (the Sugar Loaf Aerial Pathway Company), founded in 1911, and are still operated and maintained by this same private company under an agreement that is renewed every 30 years.
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