WI: A Venice of the New World?

Just had an idea. What about Manaus? It's bounded on several sides by rivers and a lot of the traffic on the Amazon is going to be smaller boats already.
 
Make a giant sea-faring pirate haven along some of the Florida Keys, connected by a complex mesh of bridges and overpasses.

Then pray. Pray hard. Because you'll be rebuilding every hurricane season.
 
Washington DC

The city is at the convergence of the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers so there is a main water route...there was little existing infrastructure and roads when it was originally built...the planners set up the city with parks and aesthetics in mind...it was built during the early "canal rush" in the nation....the B&O Canal ran through the city anyways...and the government has never been shy about spending money on DC...and the city itself is mostly on low, flat tidal basin/flats, the elevation that would negate canals doesn't kick in until past Georgetown (though Alexandria admittedly would be out from the start as anyone looking towards Robert E. Lee's house and Arlington Cemetery from the Mall can attest).
 
Make a giant sea-faring pirate haven along some of the Florida Keys, connected by a complex mesh of bridges and overpasses.

Then pray. Pray hard. Because you'll be rebuilding every hurricane season.

Pirates to go !!! :D

We want pirates, yarrrr ! :cool:
 
Another good option is Recife. Actually they have some pretty canals and it has been called the Venize of Brazil for a reason:

EDIT:There was a picture of Recife. For some reason it doesn't appear.

recife.jpg
 
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After the original Venice gets overflown they will build a duplicate of it out of Las Vegas for the tourists.:D

Such strict airspace rules in Italy; can't even fly over a city for fear of sinking it further...:D

Could happen-old London Bridge is in Arizona, of all places.
 
There's also the idea of modeling a city after Amsterdam, the "Venice of the North". Perhaps Manhattan could become a canal-centered city if the Dutch stay there, or if the Dutch colonize the Mississippi Delta.

Another candidate was Mauritstaad, nowadays Recife, in northeastern Brazil - it became a very rich city during this period, as center of dutch Brazil.
More important than the cultural motivation, though, it its geographical position: between two rivers and a reef (the name "Recife" means "Reef", literally, in Portuguese) could lead to a totally canal-based city. It still has many canals, dicks etc, but it could have many more if there were more dutch money entering in it.
A satellite photo of Venice, to compare with Recife:
mapaveneza.jpg

vs
maparecife.jpg


It was actually called "Brazilian Venice", rather than "Brazilian Amsterdam"...

another pictures:
cap1-img1.jpg

Recreation of how Recife was, before the Portuguese (and dutch)colonization

recife_decada_70+-+2.jpg

recife_decada_70+-+4.jpg

Modern(1970s) photos of Recife, showing its "dicked islands", pretty much like Venice.

recife+14.jpg

A bigger picture of the central island inside the Lagoon
 
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