Since the roads on the mainland were few, precarious and dangerous, transportation was mostly done by river. The rivers were not lacking in the region and, due to its location at the Bay of Guanabara, many paths up the mountains towards the interior went through today's Duque de Caxias. The Port of Estrela was the most important landmark of this period. Around it grew a camp that, in the 19th century, was transformed into the municipality of Vila da Estrela. After the decay of mining, the region remained a rest stop, supplying troopers, transshipment and transit of goods. Until the 19th century, local progress was remarkable. However, the relentless deforestation caused the obstruction and overflowing of the rivers, which favored the formation of marshland. The still and polluted waters led to the spread of disease-carrying mosquitoes. The location was rendered practically uninhabitable, and little remained of the population. The previously fertile lands were covered with mangrove vegetation. In 1850, epidemics arose, forcing to flee to safer places. Many properties were abandoned, and Duque de Caxias would remain in shambles for some decades. With the introduction of rail transport, the situation has deteriorated considerably. The D. Pedro II Railway linked the capital of the Brazilian Empire to the current municipality of Queimados. The production of the Paraíba Valley began to be disposed of by this route, rivers and land transportation were gradually abandoned and the river ports lost their importance. The region of Equatorial Guinea fell into sharp decline. With the abolition of slavery in 1888, several changes occurred in the economic and social life of the Baixada Fluminense. The sanitation works were abandoned, there was a delay in the conditions conducive to health and several diseases arose. Among them, Malaria and Chagas disease. Republic Under the government of Nilo Peçanha, Meriti had a timid improvement in the area of basic sanitation, counting, even, with the arrival of the piped water, in 1916, in the present land of the Pacificador. But only in the government of Getúlio Vargas, who created the Sanitation Commission of the Baixada Fluminense, the region has advanced. By 1945, more than 6,000 kilometers of rivers were cleared, taking 45,000,000 cubic meters of land from their beds. With this work, the rivers ceased to be mosquito breeding sites, greatly reducing the number of diseases in the region. When the railroad hit the Meriti Valley, the region began to