Governador Island is the largest island in Guanabara Bay

Guanabara Bay

Guanabara Bay is an oceanic bay located in southeastern Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro. On its western shore lies the city of Rio de Janeiro, and on its eastern shore the cities of Niterói and São Gonçalo. Four other municipalities surround the bay's shores...

, in Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. It has a population of about 500,000 inhabitants, in a small area of 42 km² (16.2 sq mi).

Rio de Janeiro's main airport

Airport

An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...

, Galeão - Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport

Galeão - Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport

Rio de Janeiro/Galeão-Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport popularly known by its original name Galeão International Airport is the main airport serving Rio de Janeiro, Brazil...

 and the Galeão Air Force Base

Galeão Air Force Base

Galeão Air Force Base – BAGL is a base of the Brazilian Air Force located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is named after Praia do Galeão , located in front of the original passenger terminal of the airport and presently the passenger terminal of the Brazilian Air Force...

, are located on Governador Island and occupy about a third of it, in the western and northwestern parts. A small sea inlet that once existed on the northwestern shore was landfill

Landfill

A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...

ed to build the airport's runway

Runway

According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...

 10/28, thereby increasing the island's area a little bit.

Often mentioned by carioca

Carioca

Carioca is a Portuguese adjective or demonym that is used to refer to the native inhabitants of the city of Rio de Janeiro - capital of the homonym state , in Brazil...

s (inhabitants of Rio city) simply as Ilha ("island"), Governador Island has lots of favela

Favela

A favela is the generally used term for a shanty town in Brazil. In the late 18th century, the first settlements were called bairros africanos . This was the place where former slaves with no land ownership and no options for work lived. Over the years, many freed black slaves moved in...

s, such as Morro do Dendê, the largest one, but it also has many middle-class and even a few more affluent neighbourhoods. The island is connected to Fundão Island and to the mainland by a complex of expressway bridges.

The name means "Governor's Island", because one of the first colonial governors of Brazil built a country house there in the 16th century. The native name for the island in Old Tupi was Paranapuã, which means "sea branch".

People from Governador Island suffer from the high pollution of Guanabara Bay.