Cut by the Santa Cruz extension of the urban passenger rail network of the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, it has a very diverse landscape, with commercial areas, residential and industrial.

As stated in the rare work History of the Imperial Farm of Santa Cruz, published by Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute, by Jose de Saldanha da Gama, who was one of the overseers of the farm in 1860, the Jesuits placed a large wooden cross, painted in black, seated on a stone base supported by a granite pillar.

Before the arrival of Europeans in America, the region known today as Santa Cruz was populated by people of the village's language family, Tupi–Guarani, who called the place of Spawning (fish too).

[4] After the discovery of Brazil, with the arrival of Portuguese colonists to the Guanabara Bay, a vast area of lowlands of Santa Cruz and the surrounding mountains, was donated to Cristóvão Monteiro, the Captaincy of São Vicente by Martim Afonso de Sousa in January 1567, as a reward for services rendered during the military expedition that finally drove the French out of Guanabara.

At the beginning of the 19th century with the arrival of the Royal Family in Brazil (1808) and its establishment in Rio de Janeiro, the farm was chosen as a vacation spot.

Feeling comfortable in the Royal Treasury of Santa Cruz, the Prince Regent prolonged his stay for several months, shipping, promoting public hearings and approvals from the same.

[8] On the initiative of the Portuguese sovereign were brought from China about a hundred men in charge of cultivating tea, the site now known as Morro do Chá.

[7] Dom Pedro I, abdicated the throne, but his sons continued to maintain a constant presence in the Imperial Treasury of Santa Cruz.

[7][9] It should also be noted that throughout the period between 1808 and 1889, Santa Cruz was one of the city of Rio with its landscapes portrayed by foreign travelers as the French Jean-Baptiste Debret, the Austrian Thomas Ender, the English Mary Graham and others.

[10] The picture that serves as the illustration for this text is an example, being written by the Belgian painter Benjamin Mary, who was the first ambassador of Belgium in Brazil,[11] painted in November 1837.

The figure is documentary evidence that the viewpoint of Santa Cruz was a visiting place for the emperors, in which you can see beyond the old Imperial Palace, Dom Pedro II with only 14 years old enjoying the view from the farm.

Santa Cruz, a political-economic position, and especially strategic (facing the sea and back into the paths of the backlands of Minas) was one of the first places in the country to benefit from the system of home delivery of letters by mail.

In 1938 came the first Japanese families, not directly from Japan, but of Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo, to fill the newly created lots Colonial Center and implement new experiences in agriculture.

The production was so great that supplied the whole city of Rio de Janeiro, giving Santa Cruz the title "breadbasket" of the Federal District.

With the intensive development of Rio de Janeiro, occurring in all directions, was inaugurated in 1975, the Industrial Zone, strongly promoting the urbanization of the neighborhood.

In it are located the three major industrial districts: Santa Cruz, Paciência and Palmares, where they are in full operation at the Casa da Moeda do Brasil, Cosigua (Gerdau Group), Valesul, White Martins, Glasurit and to Usina Santa Cruz, one of the largest thermoelectric fuel oil from Latin America, with an installed capacity of 950 MW.

It has an educational system that satisfactorily meet the demand and the Municipal Hospital Dom Pedro II recently modernized by the city and specializes in treating burns.

In addition to two large military units of the Armed Forces: the School of Engineering Battalion and Air Base Santa Cruz, an important center for the defense of Aeronautics and largest complex of fighting Brazilian Air Force, the Cidade das Crianças Brizola, which serves as theme park of the City of Rio de Janeiro (including having a planetary), aimed particularly at children and adolescents, and important historical and cultural monuments.

Were installed, particularly near the avenida João XXIII, several industrial enterprises weight, especially the Companhia Siderúrgica do Atlântico (CSA), which changed the landscape and dynamism to the economy of the district.

It is scheduled for put into operation a factory turbo-power generators for offshore platforms by the end of 2012, an investment of US$60 million of British Rolls-Royce Energy.

The transfer to Santa Cruz institution SESI/SENAI of vocational education is also being essential to meet the demand for skilled labor, the new industrial ventures that bring in the region.

Besides the lack of water supply and sewage disposal system at certain points, the network of illegal connections is another problem faced by the company in the neighborhood.

Santa Cruz has an Urban Bus Terminal at Rua Álvaro Alberto and has major access roads to the state capital.

Highway BR-101 (Rio-Santos) begins in the neighborhood and connects Rio de Janeiro to municipalities of the Costa Verde region and moves to the coast of São Paulo.

In 2012 the TransOeste line, part of the BRT network, linked Santa Cruz with Campo Grande and Barra da Tijuca, reducing by up to half the average travel time.

The district enjoys various public services, provided by the various levels of government and individuals, such as hospitals and clinics, the Center for Zoonosis Control Paulo Dacorso Filho, which is a reference in the municipality in the treatment of zoonosis and systems development Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance, the Resource Center Integrated Service Teen, various agencies of the Post Office and bank branches, a detachment of the Fire Brigade, the 36th Police Precinct and 27th Military Police Battalion, in addition to the municipal cemetery located near Matadouro and Jardim da Saudade cemetery.

In 1938 came the first families of Japanese Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo State, to fill the newly created lots Colonial Center and implement new experiences in agriculture.

Are recognized by law as for tourist, social, cultural municipality of Rio de Janeiro, the elected seven wonders of Santa Cruz: the Hangar do Zeppelin located at Air Base, the headquarters of Battalion School of Engineering (Villagran Cabrita), the Ruínas do Matadouro, Ponte dos Jesuítas in the sub-district of the Jesuitas, Igreja Nossa Senhora da Conceição, the Cidade das Crianças and Catedral das assembleias de Deus.

Among the sporting events happening in the neighborhood is the traditional bike ride involving more than two hundred cyclists traveling the main historical sights of Santa Cruz.

Partnership between businesses and NGOs active in the district comprise hundreds of children and adolescents around socioesportivos programs emphasizing the importance of values like self-esteem, teamwork, quality of life and citizenship.