The city has a modern appearance with wide avenues. Its harbour, long an open roadstead, has been protected and greatly improved by construction of a breakwater with port facilities at Mucuripe Point, 4 miles (6 km) to the east. The port's exports include sugar, cashews, lobsters, salt, cotton, carnauba wax, fruits, hides, textiles, and clothing. Fortaleza's factories also produce dyes, electroceramics, and styrofoam packing materials. Marine algae is processed there for use in fertilizers, stock feed, agar, and carrageenan. Highways link Fortaleza with Sobral (about 120 miles 【190 km】 west in Sobral state), Recife (about 400 miles 【640 km】 south), and the rest of Pernambuco. The Baturité Railway connects Fortaleza and its port with fertile regions to the southwest and extends southeast to Patos, in Paraíba state. Fortaleza is accessible to Brazil's other population centres by way of an international airport.

Fortaleza is the seat of a bishopric (created in 1854) and of the Federal University of Ceará (1975) and the University of Fortaleza (1973). Also in the city are the José de Alencar Theatre, a restored example of Art Nouveau style, the President Castelo Branco Mausoleum, which honours Ceará's most famous national figure, and Castelão Stadium, one of the largest football (soccer) stadiums in the country. Fortaleza's beaches, as well as those along the rest of Ceará's coast, attract large numbers of tourists. Pop. (2005 est.) 2,374,900.