The Grand Canal in Venice: bridges, depth and its attractions

As you may already know, Venice has no roads and no vehicles of any kind. Instead, it’s a city of canals. If you know anything about Venice, then the first canal to come to your mind is the Grand Canal (Canal Grande). But what about it? What is it about? How deep is it? Let’s take a brief look.

Canal Grande in Venice

The Grand Canal is the largest, longest and widest canal in Venice. It’s 2.4 miles long, 30-90 metres wide and, on average, about 5 metres deep. Though it may seem like the canal is much shallower when looking at the frail gondolas passing by, it’s actually quite deep.

The canal connects the lagoon at the Santa Lucia train station with San Marco, the tourist centre of Venice, where you can see attractions such as St Mark’s Basilica and the famous Bridge of Sighs.

The Grand Canal is basically the ‘main street’ of Venice where all of the most important and beautiful buildings are located. You can also look at how Venice got older, with buildings from the 13th and the 18th centuries standing right next to each other at times. Architectural styles also vary, with Venetian Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical buildings all forming one somewhat coherent form.

Due to Venice’s unusual form, however, the buildings along the “main thoroughfare” do not resemble those known from other cities. The buildings along the Grand Canal largely involve two functions – representative and commercial. Many of these were originally merchant residences directly combined with warehouses and granaries for easy access.

Among the greatest attractions along the Grand Canal are places such as the Ca Rezzonico Palace, the Ca’ d’Oro or the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni. The basilica of Santa Maria della Salute is also worth a look. Additionally, the area is home to some of Venice’s most famous hotels and the two banks of the canal are linked by one of the world’s most famous bridges, the Rialto Bridge.

Three other bridges span the Grand Canal – the Ponte degli Scalzi, the Ponte Dell Accademia and the Ponte della Costituzione. The last one of these, Ponte della Costituzione, was subject to controversy amidst its incompatible aesthetic and lack of wheelchair access. This is due to the bridge being very steep, so there’s loads of steps which both people in wheelchairs and the elderly cannot easily pass through. The authorities tried to introduce a lift for wheelchairs but ended up dismantling it some years after, concluding it was a failure. There was also an issue with safety concerns, as the surface was so slippery that many people were injured. Only in 2022 were glass surface sections replaced with trachyte stone.

Canal Grande today

Back to the canal, though. For years, the Grand Canal was the main commercial route and the most prestigious place in the city. This is still the case, just not in the way that it used to be.

As Venice’s main watery artery, the canal is still used as if it were a street. Water trams, water taxis and Venice’s famous gondolas run through it. As such, the ‘trade’ of the canal has us – tourists. We’re effectively the goods being transferred through the canal.