In the mid 19th century, Madrid's urban planners decided that a new thoroughfare had to be created, connecting the Calle de Alcalá with the Plaza de España. The project required many buildings in the centre of the city to be demolished, earning it the name of 'an axe blow on the map'. Decades after the first plans were made, construction still hadn't started and the media ridiculed the project, cynically calling it the 'Gran Vía' or 'Great Way' or 'Big Way'. Finally in 1904 it was approved and construction started in 1910. The last part of the street was completed in 1929.