More than 100 years ago, developer and tobacco tycoon Abbot Kinney conceived the visions of a beach resort town dubbed the "Venice of America," a cultural Valhalla dedicated to the fine arts, complete with canals, gondolas and imported Italian gondoliers. The experiment failed, and the gondoliers went home, however the canals remain. Hidden past the famous boardwalk of Venice the canals are a splendid place to take a stroll in this picturesque waterway. When the resort first opened it's doors, in the summer of 1905, Kinney had dug several miles of canals to drain the adjoining marshes for his residential development, thus bringing a taste of Venice Italy to America.
http://www.westland.net/venice/history.htmVenice Canal Walkways, Venice, CA 90291