POSTCARD HISTORY LESSON - Alderbaren Canal

Market Street - that's what you're looking at here, well, that's what you'd see if you were to gaze at this view today, but a hundred years ago this was the "Alderbaren Canal".
When Abbott Kinney made his dream of a "Venice of the West" a reality over a century ago, this is what it looked like.
Canals were dug, bridges were built, landscaping was planted,
some homes were constructed and gondolas were brought in.

Here we see a few people enjoying their time on the water.

Years later we can see that the landscaping took root nicely,
and folks continued to enjoy time on the water.

It's been a while since we saw postcards here on the Gondola Blog,
but we've seen this canal before - in my post:
"Venice, California - The Alderbaren Canal"

Somehow I think the next time I'm in the neighborhood,
I'll be shooting a photo of this same view...on "Market Street".

The Blue Gondola in Venice, California

As much of a shame as it may be, there are currently no gondolas on the water in Venice, California.
There are as many as nine gondola operations regularly taking passengers in several Southern California locations, but Abbot Kinney's Venice is not one of them.
This wasn't always the case, in fact it was our "Venice of the West" that inspired so many of the gondola operations that sprung up in the US about a century ago.  Many of those operations in turn inspired some of the modern servizios afloat today.

By all accounts, there were roughly three dozen gondolas in Venice, California - all had been brought over from Venezia by steamship, accompanied by the men who came out to row them.
That's a lot of gondolas, and way more than you'd need for the current canal system in Abbot Kinney's new neighborhood.  Originally there were a lot more canals, and in fact if you look at some of the old photos and maps, you'll notice that many of the canals of yesteryear, are streets and thoroughfares today.
One such roadway is the traffic circle at the end of Grand Boulevard.  This traffic circle inhabits real estate that was once the "Venice Lagoon", and leading into it was the "Grand Canal" (you guessed it - now Grand Blvd.).

Today there are no gondolas afloat in California's Venice, but if you drive around, you just might see one - especially if you make your way down Grand Boulevard and go around that traffic circle.

This vessel has been in the area for quite some time (although I've yet to get exact date info), and for the longest time she was displayed on the lawn in front of a bank on Lincoln Blvd. (see my post "The Washington Mutual Gondola - Venice, California" for a view of her back in 2008.

At some point she was brought from the lawn of the bank, to a place where gondolas actually used to grace the water.  Blue continues to be her main color, but some of the yellow details are gone.

I was up there a while ago with my friend, Tim Reinard of Sunset Gondola, and we happened to have a pupparin on trailer.  We thought maybe we could travel back in time if we drove around the circle enough while chanting things in Venetian dialect.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              In the end, all we managed to do was annoy other people trying to navigate through the circle, and confuse some guy who was working at a copy repair store - as I stood in front of his shop and yelled like a maniac.

Next, we decided to park and get a closer look.
Tim brought along an oar, just in case there was any unexpected flooding.

We noticed a curious sign on the bow:

What a shame. 
A gondola in "Venice", that you can't even step onto, much less row.

 
We had an oar, the boat had a forcola, so we waited around for a tsunami, or maybe an unexpected sinkhole to open up - bringing Venice back to her former glory, but it wasn't meant to be.

So we got back in our four-wheeled vehicle, looped around the traffic circle a few more times, and headed towards the freeway by way of Grand Boulevard - all the while thinking how different it would be if the asphalt were replaced by water.

It's not unusual for me to drive down a street and wonder what it would be like if it were a canal. 

This may very well be the first time I did so on a street that once was a canal.

How to Identify a Hard Working Gondolier - Part 3

A hard-working gondolier tends to wear many hats.
He's not just a boat rower.
We've looked at some of the qualities of a hard-working gondolier in two earlier posts.  Lets take a look at things from a "work" perspective, and add some more attributes.


He maintains his boat

He's not afraid to flip his boat over now and then and reach for tools and supplies.
From the post "Getting to the Bottom of Things"
http://www.gondolagreg.com/2010/07/getting-to-bottom-of-things.html


He's not afraid to take a full boat

Of course "full boat" can have many different meanings depending on the place or the situation. In some places there are regulations limiting the number of passengers in a boat, but a hundred years ago there were no such laws in Venice, California.  A photograph-based postcard from Abott Kinney's "Venice of the West" shows us just how many passengers you can jam into a gondola.  No doubt the added weight must have made for a much harder row for the hard-working guy on the back.
(from the post
POSTCARD HISTORY LESSON - The "Twelve Passenger Gondola" )

 
He cleans his own boat and knows his way around a chamois

Sponges, sessolas, and of course, the traditional chamois.
These are some of the tools of the trade.
Rags, cleaning products, waxes, and a collection of other items also are a regular part of his day.
A hard-working gondolier also doesn't hesitate to jump aboard and clean the heck out of his boat to take out a last-minute cruise.
The above photo is from my post "Servizio Gondola Ferrovia".


He's not averse to haggling with potential clients

Not all gondoliers have the additional task of interfacing directly with potential clients, and trying to convince them to take a cruise.
I believe this is one of the biggest differences between Venetian gondoliers and their American conterparts.
They are not only boat captains, they are also sales staff.
Of course there are a few dedicated rowers outside of Venice who do mix it up and haggle with walk-up clients, in front of restaurants, along boardwalks, and at the home dock - whenever someone strolls by looking for a cruise.
The photo above may look familiar; it comes from "The Negotiation".


He absolutely loves his boat

There are very few gondoliers out there who love money so much that they'll go the extra mile on an unfailing basis.  And sure, lots of gondoliers who are worth their salt, have a real love for the rowing part.

Many of us look forward to the interaction with our passengers.

When it comes down to it though, one thing hard-working gondoliers all share is a love for the boat.

You can't always tell right away,

but watch them for a while and you'll see it.

This is not just another type of boat. Schooners, runabouts, offshore racers, Chinese junks - they are all unique types of boats. 

But a gondola is so much more than just a boat.

Going in to detail would send me off on another triple-post endeavor,

so I'll save it for another time.

The photo above, of Franco Bognolo in Denmark says it all.

That man loves his boat.

And by the look of his clothes, he's been working hard to keep her in top shape.

(from the post "Pre-Launch in Denmark" )

Some of you have chimed in with some of your own ideas of what makes a hard-working gondolier.  Be careful - if you keep it up, I might just throw together another post using reader comments.

Pupparin in Venice, California - Video

video by Greg Mohr


While in Venice, California with Tim Reinard of Sunset Gondola,
I shot some video footage from various angles. 
Here's a little video I threw together using some of that footage.
 

I hope the music isn't too cheesy - it seemed to capture the mood of "Ciao Venezia", which was exactly what "Bepi" was saying as he waved going under the bridge. It was the good-bye version of "ciao", as this was the last day the boat was in Venice, California.

To read more about the goings-on of that day,

see Rowing in the "Other Venice" from earlier this week.

Rowing in the "Other Venice"

photos by Greg Mohr unless marked otherwise.

COLLECTING (of a different sort)
People collect all sorts of things: baseball cards, autographs, spoons, stamps, even cars. I’ve seen folks collect scoops of sand from the various beaches they’ve visited, patches from the different states they’ve visited, and of course there are folks who make a habit of collecting another kind of stamps – passport stamps. I call these folks “travel junkies”, and I must admit to being one myself.
But my compulsion is not just with visiting places…it’s rowing them.

I’ve collected quite a few over the years, and while my list might impress some people, others would be more apt to looking at me and saying something like: “wow, you’re weird. You’ve got a real problem”.

Indeed I do have a problem, because to feed my need, I can’t just go somewhere and buy a stamp, or patch or a spoon. I’ve got to either find a venetian boat, or bring one there, so I can row it and say that I did.

I guess I really am weird.

But as compulsions go, it is a lot more fun than spoon collecting.


THE RARE FIND
With stamp collectors there are the common ones, and then there are the rare finds. Car collectors drool over cars like “Eleanor” from the movie Gone in Sixty Seconds.
Different collectors have their different “holy grails”.
Yesterday, with the help of a friend, I got one of mine:
Venice, California.

If you saw yesterday’s post, you might have wondered what it was all about.
Who?
Where?
When?
(although I know some of you already knew, and I thank you for keeping it under wraps).


The "who" was Tim Reinard and I.
The "where" was Venice, California.
And the "when" was yesterday, July 5th of 2011.

I admit that I went out of my way to make the image look a little older  - not only to throw people off, but because it was fun.

Yesterday, I was honored to add my name to the very short list of gondoliers who’ve had the privilege of rowing a venetian boat in the last fifty years, on the remaining canals of the city that Abbot Kinney built.

Greg Mohr and Tim Reinard rowing tandem.

photo by Andrew Clark

THE STORY
In November of 2010 my friend Tim Reinard of Sunset Gondola got the opportunity to bring his pupparin to Venice, California to shoot a segment of America’s Next Top Model. He brought her up from his servizio in Sunset Beach by trailer, and hand-launched her using a clever little cart.

After the segment was wrapped Tim was contacted by a few waterfront residents, and asked if he might be able to take them and their families out for cruises.
He did so for free, all the while enjoying the experience and soaking up its significance.

Tim began thinking of the neighborhood as his second home, and even put his name into the hat to volunteer for upcoming community events.


Venice, California’s first Venice-built boat in decades was a hit.
Everyone loved her. Well, almost everyone.

Tim chats with two ladies, out for a walk with their parasols.

THE LIMIT
In any group there are one or two people who have nothing better to do but concern themselves with other people’s business.
Yes, good folks will look out their window to find their neighbors outside measuring their rain gutters to make sure they don’t stick out too far,
or making sure their rose bushes aren’t too, well, “bushy”.

In this case it was boat length that became the issue.
It seems that, somewhere along the line in the community guidelines for boats on the canals a change took place, and now if you want to put a boat on the water, she must be under 18 feet in length.
This is quite a change from the original, which allowed boats as long as a gondola. Now, sadly, the city that was designed and built to accommodate gondolas has essentially outlawed them. The pupparin isn’t 36 feet long like a gondola; she’s a few feet shorter, but nowhere near being under the 18 foot limit.

So last week, after having looked at the situation from several angles,
Tim decided to pull the boat out of the water. Yesterday she took her last trip on that remaining grid of canals. We rowed her to the ramp, hauled her out using the cart, and placed her on her trailer.

This isn’t the end for that sleek boat; she’ll make lots of people happy further south, but we talked to several of the Venice residents who I know will miss her quite a lot.

The first Venice-built boat on the water in decades, glides one last time down a connecting canal in Venice, California.

ROWING THROUGH HISTORY
Over a hundred years ago, a millionaire (and it meant something back then) named Abbot Kinney built this city. He built homes and other structures, had a large network of canals excavated, and brought in three dozen gondolas as the finishing touch.
The jewels in the crown.
After all, Venice wouldn’t be Venice without her gondolas.

As Tim and I rowed around the canals of Mr. Kinney’s “Venice of the West”, I couldn’t help but point out buildings that dated back to 1906,
and say things like “that one’s definitely an original”.
I’ve spent so much time looking at postcard images and old photographs of Venice, California.
The remaining waterways there are a small piece of her canal network.
A lot has changed there, to be sure, but the history is still there.

In the movie L.A. Story, there’s a great scene where Steve Martin’s character is showing a visitor around town and he says:
“Some of these buildings are over 20 years old!”
That quote is fitting for much of Southern California, but there are a few places where we do have history.
Many of the small bungalos have been replaced by larger, more modern homes, but if you look, you can still see some originals.
I spotted a number of palm trees that quite likely date back to the initial development of the area.
More significant to me than buildings and landscaping, was the history.

A hundred years ago gondoliers from La Serenissima rowed down these very same canals, on boats built in Venetian squeri, using remi and forcole carved by the predecessors of the men who carved ours.

The men are all gone,
their boats have all crumbled by now,
but the legacy lives on.



To learn more about the history of Venice, California from a gondola perspective, take a look at my post from June 3rd, 2008 entitled "History of Venice, California". I was asked to contribute to a book on "Venice Around the World" and her many immitations.  The June 3rd post includes a summary based on my submission.

Of course the Gondola Blog is brimming with postcard images of gondolas in Venice, California as well.  A simple search of the words "POSTCARD HISTORY LESSON" will produce many interesting images, giving an idea of what Abbot Kinney's Venice was once like.

The low-slung pupparin almost hides behind the bushes along this quiet but historic canal.

photo by Andrew Clark

For most folks this would just be some silly boat ride, but for guys like Tim and me, it’s as significant as playing catch with Babe Ruth’s mitt, or writing with the pen of John Hancock.

Out of the water and on the cart with her bow in the air,

the pupparin stands ready to be loaded onto her trailer.

At the end of the day, as we were driving down the 405 freeway,
Tim thanked me for helping him haul the boat and get her home.
I thanked him right back.
I know he thinks I was doing him a favor by helping him,
but I would have paid good money for the experience.

Tim from Sunset Gondola on America's Next Top Model - Take 2

Last night the episode of America's Next Top Model with Tim aired on the CW network. Here's an eight minute clip. 
Tim rows into view a little ahead of the four minute mark.


If you have trouble viewing the clip here, go to this link to see it and then come back. UPDATE - THE LINK HAS BEEN DISABLED.

On one hand I was thrilled to see Tim and his pupparin on such a high-profile show.  I must admit though, that I don't think they used enough footage.  But then I am a little bit biased when it comes to such things. 
Nevertheless, Tim and his boat looked great.

The bigger story here, is that for the first time in quite a while, someone has managed to put a Venetian boat on the canals of Venice, California. 
It was only for a day, but still a big deal.

For decades the remnant of canals that survived from back in Abbott Kinney's days, have been host to canoes, kayaks and rowboats.  The most recent photo I've seen of an actual gondola on Venice's canals dates back to the 80's, and it was also brought in for a limited time.

Tim's accomplishment of dropping a pupparin in the water for a TV show is no small feat and I must admit...I'm just a tad bit jealous.
Great job Bepi, you looked great!

Signs

From Venice, Italy to Venice Beach, a sign is often the first thing you see when you arrive or are close to your destination.

Coming in to Venice by rail, I shot this at the station.
Anybody see the sign in the background for the rowing club in Cannaregio?

And appropriately enough, I shot this photo while stuck in traffic on the 405 freeway - an unavoidable experience if you live in the LA area.

Unfortunately there are no rowing clubs in Venice, California (at least not yet).

Travel Diary - May 24th and 25th

Morning
The day began early, and within minutes I had managed to "grind through all the gears" and was at full speed. Taking care of last-minute preparations and checking things off the "big list" was my sole focus.

Airport
Several hours later we arrived at the Los Angeles International Airport and experienced all of the joys associated with post 9-11 air travel.
My wife and I made a few important phone calls, the kids had a snack, and we boarded Air France flight 65 bound for Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

Boarding
A few minutes later I heard one of my favorite sounds:
the sound of the airplane door being closed and latched.
It's a simple noise, really.
Nothing compared to the call of a soaring eagle or a symphony by Vivaldi.
The cabin door closing is a favorite of mine because it signals the end, the end of packing, planning, stressing and all the craziness that leads up to a big trip.
When that door closes, there's nothing more you can do to prepare.
You're forced to stop.
You've done all the work, the adventure lies ahead, but for the time being, your job is to simply relax and savor the anticipation.

Takeoff
As the big Boeing 777 sped down the runway, my daughters smiled that "rollercoaster smile" as only children can do.
We rose up over the coastline, I looked out the window and saw, of all places, Venice Beach and her remaining canals glistenning in the California sun.
I had to chuckle at the contrast between L.A.'s "Venice" and the one I would soon visit.
Venice has touched the world. Like an old film star who once was the "prettiest girl in the room", she has aged as all beauties do - with all the grace and trauma, allure and dysfunction one might expect.
But like many aging beauties, she has not withered with the years - she has reinvented herself; sometimes with great plans in mind, other times out of desperate need.
L.A.'s Venice has changed with age too, but certainly not in the same way.

In the air
I ate, watched a movie, practiced my rusty French on the poor undesserving flight attendants, and then I closed my eyes for the rest of the flight.

Paris
Our first day in Paris was part discovery, part recovery.
We checked into a hotel in the business district of La Defense and caught a train out to Versailles.
The weather was perfect - warm and sunny with an occasional breeze.

Everything in Paris is bigger than I imagined it.
Versailles was a perfect example of that fact.
The grounds of the grand landmark which began as a hunting lodge and was subsequently transformed into one of the world's greatest symbols of decadence and wealth, have a number of waterways.
One waterway has rowboats on it.
I couldn't take my eyes off that water, then I remembered that centuries ago, the King of France kept several gondolas there.
Like I said: "Venice has touched the world:.
After Versailles, we dragged ourselves back to the hotel and slept more deeply than we had in months.

The Surviving Canals of Venice, California

If you mention Venice, California to most Southern California residents, they'll immediately think of Venice Beach.
Thoughts of Venice Beach inspire images of chainsaw jugglers, roller-skating guitar players, sunglasses vendors, and "Muscle Beach".
Very few around here even know that the Venice area once had miles of canals, dozens of gondolas, and was considered a cultural leader among West Coast cities a century ago.

Most of Abbot Kinney's canals were filled in a long time ago, but a small group were spared - some say it happened because during the Great Depression, city funding wasn't there to finish the project.
The surviving canals are in a grid formation,
with four running parallel in one direction,
joined by two perpendicular ones which connect them on both ends.


The only boats afloat today are canoes, kayaks, rowboats and pedal boats.
But gazing at the canals, I can't help but picture gondolas, and because I'm a "gondola fanatic", I immediately think about one day rowing Venetian-style on the canals of Venice, California.

Mural in Venice

While driving through Venice, California, I saw this mural on the side of a building on Lincoln Boulevard.

There are many murals in California's Venice, but this one caught my eye because of the historical nature.

Contrasts abound for the person willing to look closely at the scene.

POSTCARD HISTORY LESSON - Two Views of the Typical Gondolas in Venice, California

Here we see two gondolas in Venice, California.
Based on the amount of open land in the background, we can assume the image comes from an earlier time, before Abbott Kinney's Venice reached it's peak - both in popularity and development.


The homes on the right that seem so cookie-cutter are the "tent houses" which were somewhat ubiquitous in the early days of the city. They were said to have been "thrown together" practically overnight to accommodate the crowds that descended upon Venice before hotels could be built to service the demand.

Such housing is known to have lined the Grand Canal (now Grand Boulevard), and some may actually still stand. I'm not certain whether this is a view of the Grand Canal. So much has changed in Venice, California since her waterways became roadways. I suspect that this was a different canal, as I would expect the "Grand Canal" to have been a bit more, well, "Grand".

Now let's take a look at the gondolas.

The first thing that jumps out, of course, is the fact that they aren't black.
Some of the gondolas in Venice, California were painted other colors.
These two were both a sort of brick red on the hull, with a tan or light brown on the decks.

Both gondolas also have a canopy known as a "felze di tela". A "felze" is a passenger cover, the "tela" tells us that it's made of cloth. Most of these canopies are lightweight, and seem to drape over a spindly box-shaped frame made of metal.

The felze in the postcard image is not as well-known in this day and age, but a century ago it was more common, but only utilized in the summer months.

Another indicator that this image came from the warmer months: white uniforms.
Both gondoliers in the shot are wearing white pants and shirts, with the standard red sash around the waist. Traditionally, Venetian gondoliers only wear white in the summer.
As an aside, whenever I walk out the door to do a cruise in a similar outfit, my wife laughs at me, saying something like "hey, are you going to a bullfight or something?" Remove the sash and I get Ice Cream Man jokes.

Like many of the gondolas in the Venice, California, these two boats had been modified to take additional passengers in the area just ahead of the gondolier.
Look closely, and you can see children in one of the gondolas reaching down to touch the water as the gondolier looks at the camera as if to say "you see what I have to deal with here?"

Lastly, that object behind the gondolier is an item that was frequently seen in Venice, California back then. It's a sort of vertical version of the US flag. They were most common around July 4th.

The "Washington Mutual Gondola" - Venice, California

After so many posts highlighting the glory days of Venice, California, I've been asked by many folks "are there any gondolas there now?"

Well, there aren't any in the water any more, but if you look around, you might just see some in other places.

The most visible is the gondola in front of Washington Mutual at 1415 Lincoln Boulevard.
It's a little ways north of the intersection of Lincoln and Venice Blvd.
An easy landmark would be the El Pollo Loco next door.

This is a real eye-catcher.
She's royal blue with bright yellow accents and striping (WaMu colors, of course).
There are curious vents on both ends of the vessel - probably to prevent interior rot.
At the very tail, if you look closely, there's a tiny "Windward" tag. My guess is that Marina Del Rey's oldest and largest yacht maintenance company - Windward Yacht Center - maintains this gondola.
I wonder if she's seaworthy.

I'm not sure what the story is with the ferro. It looks like at one time, there could have been fingers facing fore and aft like a traditional ferro. It's hard to say.
What we do notice, of course, is the "WMB" inset in the ferro blade.
It stands for Washington Mutual Bank, and I may be going out on a limb here, but I believe we're looking at the only bank with a gondola on it's lawn.

Sure, we all know of at least a few gondolas which are "owned" by a bank, some that have been repo'd by banks, but I think this is the only gondola deliberately owned by a bank.
Many locals have held onto the belief that this is one of the original fleet of gondolas brought in by Abbott Kinney around 1905, but she doesn't have the right dimensions to be a Venice-built gondola (at least not from the Venice in Italy).

Last time I was there, I didn't have my tape measure, but I'd estimate that she's not quite 25 feet long.

I've heard that this boat may have originally served as a parade float.

She's not currently passenger-ready.
I'm told that at one time there was a true passenger area, but as you can see, it's been sealed off.
A seat-back remains to give a genuine appearance.

I know, I know,
you're thinking:
"what the heck is up with that forcola?"

It's actually better than some amateur-carved ones I've seen.

here's another view of the ferro and a vent in the hull.
Is it just me or does this gondola also match the ROSS sign quite nicely too!

So there she is folks,
The "WaMu Gondola!"

Anybody else seen a gondola on display like this?

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.

POSTCARD HISTORY LESSON - The Coral Canal

Most of the postcards we've examined here have been retouched color photos or fully illustrated artist's renderings.

Once in a while I get to post an actual monochrome photograph postcard from "way back when".

Better still, I have for you today, a unique opportunity to see a bridge and waterway right after they were built, and then again, just before they disappeared.

The waterway featured here is the Coral Canal and Venice Lagoon, and the bridge is the Coral Canal Bridge which was located next to Venice's famous bath house.

Here's the black-and-white photo postcard, which is postmarked 1905:

The Lagoon and some of the freshly dug and cemented canals of Abbott Kinney's Venice were first flooded with water from the Pacific at the end of June, 1905.
The first gondolas were launched in July of that same year.
So the image we're looking at may be one of the very first photos published of gondolas on the water in Venice, and possibly all of Southern California.

Take a look at those gondolas.
they were fresh off the steamship when this photo was taken.
Chances are that the gondoliers rowing them were scratching their heads in amazement as the city and her canals developed around them.
To borrow a phrase: Venice wasn't built in a day.
Each canal segment was dug or dredged before becoming part of the existing network of canals.
Coffer dams were implemented to allow workers to complete each segment before the water came in.
The complete waterway was finished in September of 1905.

By the time this photo was taken, the gondoliers, who had been hired in Venice along with their boats, were probably itching to row after having their gondolas out of the water for so long.
Nobody knows exactly how old each of the gondolas were when they were brought to California.
All told, there were about three dozen Venetian gondolas in this "new Venice".
Knowing a thing or two about Venetians, I think I can safely assume that they obsessed over their gondola's appearance, and while waiting to launch, made sure every detail was either perfect, or "painted over".

Here's a close-up of the two gondolas:
They did look good.

Now imagine you're on the shore to the very far left of the shot, looking towards the bridge.

Are you there?

OK, now travel through time a hundred years, imagine that the canals have all been filled in and paved over, the bridge has been removed and the bath house replaced with eclectic Venice Beach businesses.

Ready?

Here's what it looked like about two months ago from that spot:
The wide road in the immediate foreground was never part of the waterway.
The canal shoreline was where the long crosswalk is today.
The lone woman walking with swinging arms is headed towards where the bridge used to be.
The bath house was on that corner.
The two people waking away from the camera are in a crosswalk that roughly mirrors where the bridge used to be.
I'd imagine that most people whomake that walk have no idea that there used to be a bridge there.

Now here's another photo of the same bridge much later:

The photo is said to originate from the 1930's, but that date would be impossible since the waterways in this photo were filled in and became roadways before the end of 1929.
My guess is that the photo was taken between 1927 and 1929.
Take a look at how the bridge has aged over twenty-plus years.
What really interests me is the condition of the gondola.
It appears to be getting toward the end of it's life.
The ferro is either so bashed up that it hangs over to one side, or more likely, the metal ferro has been replaced with something more flimsy.
Check out the rather non-stock tail decoration.

Some day I'd like to find out where some of those gondolas ended up.
I don't know if there's anyone who was around "way back when" who might still be alive.

Venice, California may not have been in her prime for very long, but during that time, it must have been amazing.

She has left an enduring legacy - with canal neighborhoods and Venice-themed malls and casinos in so many places.