“That is not a bridge,” said Angelo Xalle, 71, a retired port worker who recalled helping people with broken chins or foreheads get up from its sleek floor. “It’s a trap.”

The bridge, Ponte della Costituzione, by the star architect Santiago Calatrava, is a multimillion-dollar work of glass and steel that opened in 2008. Its smooth curve above the Grand Canal, near Venice’s train station, was meant to symbolize the city’s embrace of modernity, but it has become better known as a stage for ruinous tumbles and dangerous slips.

Now, after years of protests and problems, the city has decided to replace the translucent glass with less slippery — and less glamorous — trachyte stone.1

The city’s decision to allocate 500,000 euros, or about $565,000, to replace the bridge’s glass section comes after several failed attempts to limit slips with resin and nonslip stickers. Last month, as the winter cold and rains made the floor especially dangerous, officials placed keep-off signs on the glass portion of the bridge, which is most of it.

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  • 1. “People hurt themselves, and they sue the administration,” said Francesca Zaccariotto, Venice’s public works official. “We have to intervene.”
Ponte della Costituzione was meant to symbolize Venice’s embrace of modernity, but it has become better known for tumbles and slips.
Ponte della Costituzione was meant to symbolize Venice’s embrace of modernity, but it has become better known for tumbles and slips. © Francesca Volpi for The New York Times