Avenida del Libertador

Avenida del Libertador is one of the principal thoroughfares in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in points north, extending 25 km (16 mi) from the Retiro District of Buenos Aires to the northern suburb of San Fernando.HistoryInspired 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 (4.5 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).Soon becoming among the most coveted addresses in Buenos Aires, Avenida Alvear was graced by numerous mansions (a few of which survive), though it quickly also became among the most transited in the fast-growing Buenos Aires of the late 19th century. Planned with a future railway terminal in Retiro in mind, Mayor Adolfo Bullrich had a multilane boulevard developed between Retiro and Palermo, roughly parallel to the Mitre rail line and east of Alvear Avenue, giving Palermo commuters easy access to the station and freeing Alvear of its heavy traffic.