The capital of the state is Cuyaba., and the chief commercial town is Corumbá at the head of navigation for the larger river boats, and 1986 m.
The most important of the new railways is the Siberian, of which the first section, Chelyabinsk to Omsk, was opened in December 1895, and which, except for a short section round Lake Baikal, in 1901 was completed right through to Stryetensk, on the Shilka, the head of navigation on the Shilka and the Amur, 2710 m.
Chelyabinsk was linked by a transverse line with the middle Urals railway, which connects Perm, the head of navigation in the Volga basin, with Tyumen, the head of navigation on the Ob and Irtysh, passing through Ekaterinburg and other mining centres of the middle Urals.
River transport has some local value on the upper Sao Francisco and its larger tributaries, and this will be greatly increased when the Central do Brazil railway reaches the head of navigation on that river.
In 1884 this line was continued as far as Tyumen, the head of navigation on the Siberian rivers.
