A cidade da Parahyba sobre trilhos: do rio ao mar

Abstract

The object of this research is the Tambaú Railway, inaugurated in 1906, which ran from the city of Parahyba to the coast, the then district of Tambaú. The aim is to understand how this technical element was implemented and operated. The research covers the first decades of the 20th century, in order to understand how the city and society presented themselves before the installation of the modern apparatus and how the insertion of a new technique caused transformations in the urban space. In this way, identifying the modifying agents and the public that used the streetcar service is also a fundamental activity for revealing the particular characteristics of the modernization process. As well as understanding local dynamics, it became relevant to analyze the global perspective which, especially in the 20th century, exuded the precepts of Modernity, through the effervescent atmosphere of the cities, not only with its reverberations in morphology, but also with the diffusion of the new ideals of growth and development. The documents used (reports from the state presidents, newspapers and official decrees) were the result of documentary research carried out in historical archives such as the National Library's Digital Library, the Historical Archive of the José Lins do Rêgo Cultural Space and the Paraibano Historical and Geographical Institute (IHGP).