Santa Fe de Bogota
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| Population: | 6,600,000 santafereños/bogotanos |
Capital City of the New Kingdom of Granada. Capital, also, of the Governorship of Cundinamarca, and of the Province of Bogota.
Santa Fe de Bogota is an important city and it is the educational center of the Castilian Americas, with over 40 universities.
Location
Santa Fe de Bogotá is located in the Bogotá plateau in the center of New Granada.
Administration
Santa Fe de Bogotá is a municipality, ruled by a Mayor and administrated by a municipality Council. Santa Fe is also the see of an archbishipship, the capital of the province of Bogota, the capital of the Governorship of Cundinamarca and the capital of the New Kingdom of Granada, holding the public buildings of all these institutions.
At the "Real Plaza de la Constitución" there is the Primate Cathedral (east), the City Hall (west), the Legislative Court of the New Kingdom (south), and the Governorship Palace (north).
At the "Plaza de Armas", a few blocks north from Real Plaza de la Constitución. there is the Provincial Junta House.
History
Santa Fe was founded in 1539, by Benancazar, close to a previous Castilian camp founded by Jiménez de Quezada, in the southern end of the Chibcha Kingdom, in the Bacata region.
Santa Fe soon became the capital of the New Kingdom of Granada, originally compromising the Chibcha Kingdom but shortly therafter (1550) became a presidency with jurisdiction over the current territories of Cundinamarca, Antioquia, Magdalena and Panama.
In 1706, the presidency became a viceroyalty, including the current New Kingdom of Granada plus Venezola, with Santa Fe as the Capital.
Given the existence of other cities called Santa Fe: Antioquia, New Mejico, etc. Santa Fe was usually referred to as "de Bogotá", using the Castilian name of the Chibchan Bacata region.
In 1818, Santa Fe became the capital of the Great Viceroyalty of New Andalusia, with jurisdiction over the Viceroyalties of New Leon, Peru and New Granada.
The name of Santa Fe was officially changed to "Santa Fe de Bogotá" in 1840.
Transportation
Santa Fe de Bogotá is served by an extensive transportation network comprising trams, motor busses, and trolleybusses. The current tram system is the second to serve the city after the destruction of the first one during political riots in 1948. The original plan was for a metro system, but under the mayorship of Enrique Peñalosa it was instead decided to build a system of high-frequency, high-capacity trams running in dedicated lanes along the major thoroughfares. The Tranvía del Tercer Milenio or "Tranmilenio" for short was opened in 2000, and has since proven extremely popular, though there have been complaints about the severe overcrowding on the system and complications in the construction new trunk lines to the Aerodromo El Dorado and the Carrera Décima. To address overcrowding, new Von Siemens Combino Supra trams have been bought, requiring the modification of some stations. A bus rapid transit line along the Carrera Séptima was opened in 2013. In addition, a second attempt at a metro system has begun, with the first line projected to open sometime from 2019 to 2022. Radiating out from the central Estacion de la Sabana is a Cercanias network, run by the Ferrovias Castellanas and serving towns like Zipaquirá and Soacha as well as towns further out on the Savannah.
