The Italian harbor city of Venice is famous for its many canals and bridges. Built along the shores of the Adriatic Sea, the canals were used for protection, sheltering the city from the mainland, and transportation within the city.
The city canals came after the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. The Lombard hordes, whose incursions into northern Italy began in ad 568, drove great numbers of mainlanders onto the islands of the lagoon, previously the homes of itinerant fishermen and salt workers.
It was built by digging canals and lining them by driving closely spaced wooden stakes, and mostly those were water-resistant alder wood, through sand and mud to rest on harder clay beneath.
In Venice, however, the streets consist largely of canals and before the streets can be repaired, somebody has to get rid of the water. The first step in canal maintenance is to erect one or more cofferdams.
PHOTO OF 1956 WHILE CLEANING ‘THE FLOATING CITY’ DURING THE LOW TIDES
In the picture, you can see the canal being drained and cleaned during the low tides in the canals, Venice, Italy, in early 1956. The astonishing photo was captured by Bill Perlmutter.
