the Estrada Real (now Avenue Pastor Martin Luther King Jr.). The Royal Road went toward the Church of Nossa Senhora da Candelária, in downtown Rio de Janeiro, before passing over the Freguesia de São João do Orago do Rio Merity, by the port of Pavuna, by Inhaúma and the Freguesia de Nossa Senhora da Apresentação do Irajá. These paths formed for a long time the best option to enter the land of the Recôncavo Fluminense, as access was difficult due to the large amount of wetlands and rivers of considerable width. To establish the route of the Estrada Real, were considered the best spots for transposition of the Saratoga and Meriti, noting where these rivers formed bars. The colonization of the area required to route the flow of production of the mills. Initially, this was possible thanks to the waterways, when the rivers served as highways, once the Indian trade routes (and roads derived from them) were rough and the rivers were the easiest way to enter the Recôncavo region for its colonization. Contraction Nova Iguaçu was a much larger city in the past than its present form. The history of the city is marked by the emancipation of several districts that sought administrative independence. The first break occurred on December 31, 1943, when the City Council ratified the emancipation of Duque de Caxias. In 1947, Nilópolis took their turn at emancipation. However, the most significant emancipations occurred in the 1990s. Prior to the industrialization of Nova Iguaçu in the 1990s, it was a bedroom community for Rio de Janeiro. The city itself had practically no urban infrastructure, as its prior focus had been on citrus farming. By 1989, the city had grown to a population of 1.7 million, making it the sixth most populous city in Brazil at the time. In 1990, the district of Belford Roxo was emancipated, followed by Queimados, which had encompassed most of Nova Iguaçu's industrial district. In 1991, Japeri was emancipated, and in 1990, Mesquita. These emancipations represented an economic blow to Nova Iguaçu, whose population (and hence, whose revenue) was greatly reduced, without a concomitant reduction in public spending. Territorial organization Nova Iguaçu is administratively divided into 5 Setores de Planejamento Integrado ("Integrated Planning Sectors"), 9 distritos (districts) named Unidades Regionais de Governo ("Regional Government Units") and 68 bairros (neighborhoods). Demographics The population of the city suffered a reduction after the enfranchisement of