Avenida del Libertador (Buenos Aires)

Coordinates: 34°34′55″S 58°24′06″W / 34.58194°S 58.40167°W / -34.58194; -58.40167
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Approximate route

Avenida del Libertador is one of the principal thoroughfares in

San Fernando
.

History

Inspired by Parisian urbanist

Baron Haussmann's renowned modernization of the City of Lights, Mayor Torcuato de Alvear took office with a similar mandate in 1880. Inheriting a rapidly growing city hamstrung by a typically colonial grid of narrow streets, his most ambitious project would be a boulevard connecting the Retiro section (north of downtown) to the growing neighborhoods of Recoleta and Palermo to the northeast (at the time merely suburbs). Bella Vista Street was widened and lengthened, reaching 7 km (4.3 mi) northwest into Palermo and, upon its inaugural in 1885, was renamed in honor the Mayor's father, Carlos María de Alvear (one of Argentina's early leaders
).

The avenue in 1936

Soon becoming among the most coveted addresses in Buenos Aires,

Mitre rail line
and east of Alvear Avenue, giving Palermo commuters easy access to the station and freeing Alvear of its heavy traffic.

Opened in 1906, Avenida

Viceroy Vértiz was renamed Avenida del Libertador in 1950 in honor of the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Perú, General José de San Martín, by order of President Juan Perón and to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of San Martín's passing. A 15 km (9.3 mi) thoroughfare (Route 195) connecting Buenos Aires to San Fernando was built in the late 1930s and was likewise renamed in 1950. The subsequent automobile boom and the growth of northside neighborhoods and suburbs led Mayor Manuel Iricíbar in 1968 to order the extension of the avenue northwards into the Belgrano and Núñez
neighborhoods. The extension was facilitated by a tunnel and by the widening of Blandengues Street, which became part of Avenida del Libertador. Thus connected to the avenue of the same name north of Buenos Aires, Libertador's entry into the suburb of
Avenida 9 de Julio
.

Itinerary

The avenue in Olivos, Greater Buenos Aires

Palermo Hippodrome
. Its route along both these neighborhoods is surrounded by some of the most valuable residential real estate in Buenos Aires.

A tunnel opened in 1971 takes the avenue past the Municipal Golf Course and into the

San Fernando until its city limit with the Paraná Delta city of Tigre
, where it ends past a bridge over one of the area's numerous canals.

Landmarks along Avenida del Libertador

External links

34°34′55″S 58°24′06″W / 34.58194°S 58.40167°W / -34.58194; -58.40167