Officially founded on October 2 1914, Porto Velho was started by pionners arround 1907, during the construction of the Madeira-Mamoré Railroad. After the railroad was completed, the local population was of arround one thousand inhabittants. Most of its wooden houses were home for the Caribbean workers - hence the name of the town's largest district by then, "Barbadoes Town", nowadays called the "Alto do Bode". The fragile constructions, together with the railway's instalations, were the origin of the city.
In the first sixty years, the city's development was directly conected to the railway's activities. In times rubber had high value on the international market, there was progress. On the devalorization seasons, due to the lack of activity on the railroad, there was nothing but poverty and recession.
When Malaysian rubber turned Amazon's uncompetitive, the region's economy came to a halt. Cities like Santo Antônio do Madeira, that had as much as a tram line and an weekly newspaper by the time of Porto Velho's foundation, are nothing but ruins nowadays. Porto Velho's survival is associated to the better conditions of the area where it was built, it's easy acess by the river, it's harbor... This all counted as Porto Velho was chosen the capital of the newly-formed Federal Territory of Guaporé, in 1943.
Only with the beginning of World War II there was another cycle of progress in the region. When the Allied forces had lost control over the Malaysian rubber, Amazon's was needed by the war effort. This produced what is know in Brazil as the "second rubber cycle". When the war ended, the region's economy once again came to an halt.
Porto Velho's modern history begins with the discovery of cassiterite arround the city and gold on the Madeira river, by the end of the fifties. Also, the government helped on the seventies, after the decision to allow for large cattle farms on the territory. Almost one million people moved to Rondônia, and Porto Velho's population increased to three hundred thousand. This intense migration caused much trouble for the city. In example, the suburban borroughs are nothing but shanty towns, among many other problems.
The city nowadays has it's own university (Universidade Federal de Rondônia). It's population is of 334.661 people.