Beneath your feet, this bridge crosses one of six canals that survive from the Venice of America Abbot Kinney opened in 1905. When Venice of America opened in 1905, it had sixteen miles of canals dredged through the tidal marshes and connected to the ocean. Gondoliers in striped shirts poled tourists through the waterways past Venetian-style buildings, and the whole project was a monument to one man's eccentric wealth and romantic imagination.
The city of Venice was annexed by Los Angeles in 1925 over the protests of its residents, who wanted to remain independent, and within years the city began filling in most of the canals to convert them to roads — the automobile era was beginning, and canals were inefficient. The six canals that remain in the residential neighborhood to the south of the main Venice thoroughfare were saved by residents who fought the filling project. Today they run through a quiet residential neighborhood of cottages and gardens, the wooden footbridges crossing them still, ducks and herons nesting in the margins.
Walk the full length of the canal walk; it is one of the most peaceful and unexpected corners of the city.