The needle's eye of Venice The fate of the small town of Mestre on the inner shore of the Venetian Lagoon has long been inseparably tied to that of the Serenissima: as the bridgehead for practically all the goods traffic to and from Venice, Mestre is the revenue-generating bottleneck on the lifeline of the fairy tale city. All the developments on the island city and on the terraferma, the historical hinterland of the powerful Venetian Republic (697-1797), were always directly connected with each via Mestre, like connected vessels: until into the 19th century most of the goods and persons headed for Venice embarked in Mestre and were brought across the Lagoon directly to their destination. Consequently, Mestre was a lively place that grew around several port basins and shipping channels. In 1846 the Ponte Vecchio railway bridge was built across the Lagoon - a first dent in Mestre's career as guardian of the gateway. However, the new railway junction far outside the old town also brought opportunities with it. In 1917 a substantial part of the urban area was used to erect the large industrial port Marghera, which today has a shipyard for building cruise liners and large chemical industries. From 1931 to 1933 the road bridge to Venice was built by Euge-nio Miozzi (called Lictor Bridge by Mussolini, later renamed Peace Bridge). It benefitted tourism: since that time the 30 million visitors who flock each year to Venice, with more than three million overnight stays, have ignored Mestre completely.
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