[1] The treaty, drafted by Brazilian foreign affairs minister José Maria da Silva Paranhos,[2] gave Brazil the territory of Acre (191,000 km2), in exchange for over 3,000 km2 of Brazilian territory between the Abunâ and Madeira rivers, a monetary payment of two million British pounds, paid in two installments, and a pledge of a rail-link between the Bolivian city of Riberalta and the Brazilian city of Porto Velho, which would bypass the rapids on the Madeira.

It was supposed to go as far as Riberalta, on the Rio Beni, above that river's rapids, but had to stop short at Guajará-Mirim.

In the 1870s, during the rubber boom, the American George Church was defeated twice by the heat, the difficulty of the terrain, and the appalling loss of life from fever.

At least 3,600 men died building the 367 km of track Guajaramirin-Station (popular estimates say that each one hundred sleepers cost one human life).

The BR-364 road eventually subsumed the route as railway bridges were taken over, leaving what remained of the track to enthusiasts to salvage what they could.