The Grand Canal 1 – Venice, Italy Editorial Photo

The Grand Canal is the principal waterway of Venice. Its origins are probably natural, one of the many riverbeds that once flowed into the lagoon, which was continually being dug out and reinforced along its embankments in the past. This board canal in the shape of an inverted S which divides the city into 2 parts starts at the Santa Lucia Station and flows into the Bacino (Basin) di San Marco. The Grand Canal is only crossed by 3 bridges: the Bridge of Scalzi in front of the station, the Rialto Bridge, and the wooden Accademia Bridge. Of these only Rialto Bridge has ancient origins; the others were build in the last century. Besides being a source of changing water for the streams and canals that flow into it, the Canal is the city’s main commercial artery. Boats transporting goods, water-buses filled with tourists and Venetian moving around the city, and gondolas, they all ply along the Grand Canal. Unfortunately the wave motion created by this traffic continually jeopardizes the buildings build alongside it. As someone once said, the Grand Canal is really “the most beautiful street in the world�. View from the Rialto Bridge.