The History of Venice Beach: An Offbeat Tourist Destination

The term Venice conjures of images of romantic city with numerous canals and archways, a city where boats are the preferred route of travel. But did you know there is a Venice in USA also, here I am describing the Venice beach.

Venice in The United States of America was founded by the tobacco millionaire known as Abbot Kinney in 1900's as a beach holiday resort town, fourteen miles west of the city of Los Angeles. He and his co - worker Francis Ryan had bought 2 miles of ocean front land south of Santa Monica in 1891. They built a holiday resort town called the Ocean Park on the northern part of the property, which was soon appended to Santa Monica. After Ryan's death, Kinney and his new co-workers continued building south of Navy Street in the unincorporated territory.

When the Venice in America began in 1905, on the 4th of July, Kinney had dug many canals to empty the marshes for his residential region, he built a pleasure pier 1200-foot-long with an arena, vessel restaurant, he built a hot water plunge, and constructed a long street for business with Venetian edifices. Tourists, largely arriving by trolley from L . A . and S . M . (Santa Monica), then rode Venice beach's small railroad to travel the town. But the biggest attraction happened to be Venice beach's mile upon mile of gently sloping beach. Residential and housekeeping tents were up for rent.

The town grew greatly in population, incorporated side by side housing tracts, and changed the official and registered name to Venice from Ocean Park in the year 1911. The population of 3119 residents in 1910 before long reached 10,000 and pulled 50,000 to 150,000 visitors on the weekends, most of them come during the summer.

A Venice Stage set Railway, Marine museum, Virginia Film, Whip, Racing Derby and other rides and game booths were added on in 1910. By 1925 with the addition of a 3rd roller coaster, a Dragon Slide, Fun House, and Flying Circus ride, it became the most - favored and well liked amusement pier on the West Coast. Some Several hundred thousand tourists visited Venice beach on the weekends and summers and went on the rides, restaurant food, and souvenirs. In October 1925, Venice became part of Los Angeles.

Venice beach is still a popular tourist destination and visited heavily during the summer. Now part of Los Angeles, it is still visited by many people.