The city flourished.
Buildings went up, each more splendid than the last, most in the favored French mode. Tremendously wealthy beef barons sent their sons to Europe. They arranged profitable and beneficial marriages for their
daughters. Buenos Aires became a city of culture and fashion, the arbiter of the Americas. The city declined in a long slow gradual process that left residents confused and lamenting their lost grandeur.
Labor problems and strikes suppressed by the military set a precedent for the coming years. In the 1930's, a modernization program tore down colonial buildings which had survived the turn of the century
building boom to make the major avenues of Corrientes, Santa Fe and Córdoba. After World War II, the city absorbed outlying suburbs and continued to grow. Today Buenos Aires is vast yet easily accessible
by subway or Subte.
The portions of most interest to visitors surround the compact central area around the Avenida 9 de Julio, the widest avenue in the world, which runs from Plaza Constitución to Avenida del Libertador and
the exclusive northern suburbs. Intersecting the Avenida 9 de Julio, the Avenida de Mayo runs west from the Casa Rosada at Plaza de Mayo to the congressional buildings at Plaza del Congreso. Street names
change at Avenida de Mayo. On the northeastern corner the Retiro train station, the bus terminal and a number of airline terminals are conveniently grouped. Corrientes crosses 9 de Julio at the Obelisk,
a central landmark. There is a pedestrian tunnel beneath the street. Shopping is most fashionable on upscale Avenida Santa Fe and the Florida and Lavalle pedestrian malls.
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