How do buildings stay up in venice

To largen the marsh islands they were taking refuge on, they began to dig canals and used wooden planks to shore the banks. They used a similar wooden plant technique to create foundations for their buildings. The settlers hammered thousands of wooden piles into the mud, each one touching the next until they cut the tops off to reveal a solid wooden platform. These platforms are still below many of the buildings you see today. Actually, no! There are two key factors to rotting wood, water and oxygen.

When the piles were hammered into the marshlands, they were so surrounded by water that there was no oxygen to rot them.

Additionally, as the waters around the wood continued to flow, there was a shift in the woods state. The water was contaminated with silt and salt and blasted the underwater wood for years. This has somewhat of a petrifying state on the wood, turning it stone-like at an accelerated pace. Some people have suggested that Venice should be known as the Sinking City and not the Floating City.

In the s a series of artisan wells opened across the city. Having been built on a lagoon and surrounded by the salty Mediterranean Sea, the city had always struggled to find drinking water. Another utility handled in a uniquely Venetian way is the trash collection. Garbage men collect waste on foot, with handcarts to wheel the refuse to the edge of larger canals. The trash is then transferred to large boats that ferry it out of the city. You can usually spot this process outside the Rialto Market, which generates its fair share of trash on a daily basis.

The cost of garbage collection is three times the price in Venice as it is on the mainland. The postal service works in much the same way. In fact, DHL and UPS have liveried boats that deliver packages around the city, nipping through the canals like another other postal van on terra firma.

A whole host of other goods are also transported by boat. How does Venice work? Do you want to receive our best offers?

Fill in the form and save on your trips! Next post ». Related Posts.