Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0289Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of the Grand Canal of Venice. Above the image "T433 (Star)" is printed, below the image "V14648T The Rialto and the Grand Canal, Venice, Italy." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company Copyrighted, Underwood & Underwood, Inc. Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
V14648
THE RIALTO AND THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE, ITALY
We are looking in the northern part of the city, looking across the largest of its hundred and forty-seven canals. The famous and picturesque Rialto Bridge before us is built of marble and flanked with shops. The buildings in the distance stand on one of the many islands which make up the city. Every rod of the low ground has been used and a good deal has been artificially made by dirving piles inthe muddy bottom of this shallow lagoon of the Adriatic Sea. There are no tides here.
This long, slender, black-painted gondola has for centuries been the cief means of transportation about the city, though so many bridges make connections between the small islands that is is possible to walk everywere if one can spare the necessary time. Unfortunately for the romantic atmosphere of Venice, motor boats and launches have recently begun to displace the picturesque gondolas. A railway line, leaving the city by a long birdge, now connects Venice with the mainland of northern Italy.
People lived on these islands even fifteen hundred years ago; a thousand years ago the settlement was a prosperous republic. Venetian adventureres journeyed to the far East and the far North, bringing home shiploads of treasure partly purchased, partly the booty of pirate enterprise. Venetain soldiers proved sorng enough both to hold off jealous neighbors and to establish foerign conquests. In the early 13th century this was one of the richest of the independent cities of Europe.
Here is where Antonio, the merchant, pledged his poun of flesh to Shylock for a laon to Bassanio; and over this very bridge Othello, the Moor, may have led his bride from her father's house.
Copyright by The Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection