Venice Canals

Developer Abbot Kinney built these man-made wetland canals in 1905 as part of his Venice of America project, recreating the appearance of Venice, Italy, in coastal Los Angeles County. Only six of the original canals survive—four running east-west (Carroll, Linnie, Howland, and Sherman) and two running north-south (Eastern and Grand)—though the network was once three to four times larger. Unlike its Italian counterpart, the Grand Canal has no bridge crossing it, and the historic district faced demolition threats in the mid-20th century before being revitalized in the 1990s.

Abbot Kinney opened his Venice Canals development on July 4th, 1905, drawing a crowd of 40,000 people to a Southern California neighborhood designed to emulate the waterways of Venice, Italy. The original system of seven canals bore names such as Grand, Lion, Venus, and Coral, but by the 1920s the network was viewed as outdated due to rising automobile use. After a 1924 city decision and a subsequent Supreme Court ruling, almost all the canals were filled in by the end of 1928 to make room for paved roads. The surviving canals were drained and rebuilt with new sidewalks and walls during a 1992 renovation, reopening the following year.

The Venice Canals Historic District in Los Angeles dates to 1905, when Abbott Kinney's Venice of America opened with man-made canals that visitors reached by streetcar. Most of the original network was filled in during the 1920s and 1930s to make way for roads, and only six canals remain today, lined with walking paths and crossed by small bridges. Between 1991 and 1993, the city restored the surviving canals to a depth of five feet, adding retaining walls, new sidewalks, and saltbush shrubs along the walkways.