POSTCARD HISTORY LESSON - Another View of the Lagoon in Venice, California

Last week we looked at the bridge over Coral Canal along the perimeter of the lagoon in Venice, California.

Now we're back to take another view of that waterway, using post card images and a current-day photo for perspective.

Here's the first postcard:The bridge in the background is not the Coral Canal bridge, although it is similar - the canal directly behind the gondola is Lion Canal. If we could look further to the right, we would see Grand Canal, and over to the left, just outside of the shot is Coral Canal.
The large building behind the man on the dock is the Antler Hotel, which is said to have housed a speakeasy in it's basement during prohibition.

Now here's a photo I took two months ago from the same spot:
Looking from right to left, we see Grand Boulevard, which used to be Grand Canal.
To the left of Grand Blvd/Canal, is Lion Canal, which, by the way, is now Windward Avenue.
Finally, to the left of Windward Avenue is a restaurant with green awnings, where the Antler Hotel once stood.

Now let's check out the gondola from that postcard.
The postcard was stamped in 1915, although there's no telling how much earlier the image was captured.

The gondola has a canopy which consists of a lightweight frame with draped cloth.
It looks an awful lot like the "felze de tela" canopies I've seen in old photos from Venice, Italy.

The ferro has five fingers; something seen more often a hundred years ago.

The foredeck has diagonal trim pieces, another feature which indicates that the gondola may have been relatively old when this image was captured.

The foredeck also appears to have been painted white - something fairly unique to gondolas in Venice, California in the early part of the twentieth Century.

Wanna see that sign on the dock?
Thought so.
I believe it reads:
Everybody in Venice rides on a
GONDOLA
WHY DON'T YOU?

I've got one more postcard for you to look at in this post.
It's a wider view, taken from a slightly higher vantage point.
Again, Lion Canal on the left, and Grand Canal on the right.

I think the structure in the water that looks like a huge duck-blind is a lifeguard stand.

There is one more thing in this image that deserves attention.
Actually it deserves it's own post.

I'll give you a hint:
There's something very wrong about the image.

Any guesses?
I'll publish another post on it.