There's a New Bridge in Town

photos by Nereo Zane

For the longest time, Venice has had only three bridges.
It's been such a standard piece of information; an easy question to answer.
As reliable as "is the Pope Catholic?" Or "does a bear..." well, you get the idea.
Times change and things you thought would always stay the same change too.
Believe it or not, until the 19th century, the only span across the Grand Canal was the Rialto.
Both the Scalzi and Accademia bridges were added during the Austrian occupation in the 1800's.
Now, more than a century later, another bridge has popped up to allow folks to cross the Grand canal. The bridge is strategically located to link Piazzale Roma with the train station.
Here are a couple images to consider:

The bridge location in 2006 before construction of the arch. You can see the foundation ramping up on the right-hand side.

The bridge as it stands today. Most of the project appears to be complete, but I'm told that people aren't yet allowed to walk across.

Venice's fourth span was designed by a Spanish architect, artist and engineer named Santiago Calatrava Valls.
I'll go into further detail about the bridge, and the man who's building it, in another post.