View looking west down the canal, from the top of the Rialto Bridge, closer view; The Grand Canal (Italian: Canal Grande, Venetian: Canałasso) is the most important canal in Venice, Italy. It forms one of the major water-traffic corridors in the city. Public transport is provided by water buses and private water taxis, but many tourists visit it by gondola. At one end the canal leads into the lagoon near Santa Lucia railway station and the other end leads into Saint Mark Basin: in between it makes a large S-shape through the central districts ("sestieri") of Venice. It is 3800 m long, 30-90 m wide, with an average depth of five meters. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 7/4/2008