The waterways are the lifeblood of the city and the most well known canal in Venice is the Grand Canal – known by the locals as ‘the most beautiful street in the world’. The Grand Canal is crossed by four bridges: the Rialto bridge, the Ponte degli Scalzi near the railway station, the Accademia bridge near the eponymous art gallery, and a fourth bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava, which is a link between the railway station and Piazzale Roma.
There are more than 430 bridges in Venice. Originally all bridges were made of wood or stone and they did not have any side protection, which in Venetian is called Bande.
An alternative way of crossing the Grand Canal is to take a "traghetto”, a gondola-like boat capable of ferrying a dozen or so passengers from one bank to the other; for a small fee you too can enjoy the experience of being rowed across the Grand Canal and of having an original perspective of it.
Ponte di Rialto
The
Rialto Bridge is one of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. The Rialto became an important district in 1097, when Venice’s market moved there, and in the following century a boat bridge was set up across the Grand Canal providing access to it. This was soon replaced by the Rialto Bridge, it is the oldest bridge across the canal.
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Ponte degli Scalzi
The
Ponte degli Scalzi (or Ponte dei Scalzi), literally, "bridge of the barefoot [monks]", is one of only four bridges in Venice to span the Grand Canal. The bridge connects the sestieri of Santa Croce and Cannaregio. On the north side, Cannaregio, are the Chiesa degli Scalzi (Church of the Barefoot or Discalced Monks) and the Santa Lucia (Ferrovia) railway station. The south side, Santa Croce, is close to the bus station Piazzale Roma.
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Ponte dell'Accademia
The
Ponte dell'Accademia is one of only four bridges in Venice to span the Grand Canal. It crosses near the southern end of the canal, and is named for the Accademia galleries. First suggested as early as 1488, a bridge was not constructed until 1854. The original steel structure, designed by Alfred Neville, was demolished and replaced by a wooden bridge in the 1930s, despite widespread hopes for a stone bridge.
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Ponte della Costituzione
The
Ponte della Costituzione is the fourth bridge over the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. It was designed by Santiago Calatrava, and was moved into place in 2007 (connecting Stazione di Santa Lucia to Piazzale Roma), amid protest by politicians and the general public. The bridge was installed in 2008 and the bridge was known as Quarto Ponte sul Canal Grande before the official name was adopted to celebrate the constitution.
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