'Till thirteenth century Venice was built on a groups of islands separated by channels. To get on the other side were laid down wood boards connecting opposite sides of the channels. Later many bridges were built in Venice but no one of them joining the Gran Canal's banks.
This was a big problem for the Establishment so that population was always teasing him about this promise.
To solve this problem Serenissima's Establishment decided to call some of the best architects of that period:Andrea Palladio e Vincenzo Scamozzi.
Commom idea of both famous architects was to build a bridges with three big arches finishing in the central part of it with a kettledrum substained by huge columns. In spite of the great fame of both architects won a project by Antonio da Ponte who thought a unic arch bridge, 48 meters long and 22 meters wide, that was immediately distinguished by Palladio's majestic project.
The Rialto Bridge presents two shops lines included in the three stairs cutted by the central kettledrum substained by doric columns.
Foundation was started in the 1588, and it took some years to finally join the opposite part of the Gran Canal and subsitute the previous wood bridge that many times collapsed before. To get an imagine of this previous bridge look at the famous painting by Carpaccio "Guarigione di un ossesso").