WATCH YOUR STEP

Venice to Replace Slippery Glass on Footbridge Because of ‘Almost Daily’ Tourist Tumbles

“This is not a bridge,” one Venetian retiree said of the notorious Ponte della Costituzione. “It’s a trap.”

Venetian authorities have designs to replace the glass underfoot on a star architect’s slippery bridge, The New York Times reported Sunday, following years of pedestrian spills. The glass on the Ponte della Costituzione, arching over the Grand Canal, will instead be replaced with trachyte stone. Designed by Santiago Calatrava and opened in 2008, the bridge has become notorious as the site of numerous slips and falls, especially in the wet and wintry season.

“People hurt themselves, and they sue the administration,” Francesca Zaccariotto, a public works official for Venice, said. “We have to intervene.” The city will allocate roughly $565,000 to the reconstruction. A prior effort to apply resin and non-slip stickers reportedly failed to curb the “almost daily” tumbles on the beautiful but dangerous bridge, according to Zaccariotto. “We can’t always do poetry,” she said. “We must give security.” A Venetian retiree, well-versed in helping people off the bridge after their nasty spills, told the Times, “That is not a bridge. It’s a trap.”