The Enchanting Venice Beach Canals

If you visit California's famous Venice Beach, you must take a stroll along the beautiful Venice Beach Canals Historic District. This seaside community was built in 1905 by real estate developer Albert Kinney who wanted to bring Venice, Italy to America. He acquired acres of beachfront marshland and transformed in into his Venice of America vision, which included a residential community with canals and foot bridges, a pier with an auditorium, a dance hall, restaurants, and shops built in Venetian style architecture.

Today only a portion of the original canals remain since many canals were transformed to streets to accommodate automobiles. In the 1980s, the Venice Beach Canals underwent a major renovation project to rebuilt the decaying canals and sidewalks. Modern engineering was used to install tidal gates at Marina del Rey to control the quality of the ocean water that fills the canals which have also been declared a wildlife preserve for birds and fish.

To learn more about this vintage Los Angeles treasure click here: PBS SoCal's The Lost Canals of Venice of America and Voice of the Canals.