The first structure that joined the Campo de San Vitale and the Campo de la Carità was an iron bridge built in the 19th century, following the design of Alfred Neville. Thus the old aspiration was finally realised, in 1854, of connecting these two points over the Grand Canal, an idea that had already been thought of in the 15th century. 

The bridge you are crossing the canal on today gets its name from galleries of the Academy alongside which it stands, and has nothing in common with the work designed by Neville, since this was demolished during the first half of the 20th century.

The idea was to build a new bridge, this time in stone, but in fact, on demolishing the original structure and while awaiting the results of the public tender issued, a wooden bridge was built to join the two banks provisionally.

This walkway, built at the beginning of the 1930s, was designed by the engineer Eugenio Miozzi, and despite being clear that his task, far from being based on any aesthetic criteria, was purely functional, in some way or other it appealed to the sensitive nerve of the Venetians, who asked for it to be preserved, so that the project by Torres and Briazza, who had won the public tender, was never realised.

In fact, when in 1985, given the poor state of conservation of the wooden structure, the need was seen to renovate this connection between the sestiere of San Marcos and that of Dorsoduro, it was decided, ignoring the new projects that had been presented by diverse architects’ studios, to build a replica identical to the Miozzi bridge, which is the one you can still see today.