Inspired 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 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. Opened in 1906, Avenida
Viceroy Vértiz was renamed
Avenida del Libertador in 1950 in honor of the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Perú, General
José de San Martín, by order of President
Juan Perón and to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of San Martín's passing. A thoroughfare (Route 195) connecting Buenos Aires to San Fernando was built in the late 1930s and was likewise renamed in 1950. The subsequent automobile boom and the growth of northside neighborhoods and suburbs led Mayor
Manuel Iricíbar in 1968 to order the extension of the avenue northwards into the
Belgrano and
Núñez neighborhoods. The extension was facilitated by a tunnel and by the widening of Blandengues Street, which became part of Avenida del Libertador. Thus connected to the avenue of the same name north of Buenos Aires, Libertador's entry into the suburb of
Vicente López via a
roundabout was replaced by a freeway underpass and its boulevard medians, removed. Severe rush hour traffic congestion along the avenue was alleviated by the 1996 opening of the
Arturo Illia Freeway, running parallel to the avenue and providing a (
toll road) alternative to the busy junction at Libertador and
Avenida 9 de Julio. ==Itinerary==