built between 1842 and 1852 to serve as a hospice, which was inaugurated by emperor Dom Pedro II only ten years later. In 1949, the building was given to the University of Brazil, which then restored and expanded its facilities. In downtown Rio de Janeiro, one can find many isolated college units: the College of Law Studies, at Conde dos Arcos Palace, former headquarter of Brazilian senate; the School of Music, planted in the old National Library building since 1913; the Valongo Observatory at the top of "Morro da Conceição" (Conceição Hill); the Institute of Philosophy and Social Sciences and the Institute of History, both situated in the old National School of Engineering building, at "Largo de São Francisco de Paula". In the 2010-2020 UFRJ Master Plan a project was set for conversion of the Praia Vermelha campus into a great cultural center, consequentially transferring almost all of the campus' academic activities, plus that of all of college units scattered throughout Rio, to the College City, thus redeeming the city's original intent of centering all university activities in Ilha do Fundão. The decision has generated strong polemic with both students and staff, given the great distances between southern (Praia Vermelha) and northern (Ilha do Fundão) Rio and the chaotic traffic that plagues the Red Line of João Goulart Freeway - the "jugular" connecting the College City to Rio. Aloísio Teixeira, then rector and strong advocate for the integration, argued that the University Palace can bear a circulation of no more than two to three thousand people per day, and that the College City's major problems are not on its structure, but on its access points which are more easily fixable matters. Aiming to solve part of the city's traffic problem, in mid-2010 Rio de Janeiro saw the building of its first cable-stayed bridge, named "Ponte do Saber" (Knowledge Bridge), which was inaugurated in 2012 to receive a daily average of 25,000 vehicles. Duque de Caxias Through its biophysics undergraduate course, started in the second half of 2008, UFRJ initiated activities in Xerém, a region with large industrial and technological potential in the city of Duque de Caxias. Aiming to cooperate with Inmetro (National Institute of Metrics, Normalization and Industrial Quality), the university forged a partnership with the government of Duque de Caxias and with the Foundation for Technological Development and Social Policies. Currently, and additionally to biophysics, the Xerém campus