Gateways as Inter-Modal Nodes in Different Ages: The Venetian Region, Eighteenth to Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

This paper focuses on the theoretical implications of a regional case study for the analysis of transportation networks and gateway functions. The starting point is the result of a research on the changing role of gateways, and on the relocation of the gateway function from one city to a series of cities in the Venetian region from eighteenth to twentieth century. Against this evolution, I test the validity and usefulness of a definition of the gateway as a point of inter-modal exchange for its historical interpretation.Changing transport technologies involve different organisations of intermodal exchanges, and imply more or less intense economic functions of gateway cities. These changes intertwine with political events and decisions, and more general economic changes: they could at the same time be read as an effect of these transformations, and as a causal factor. From this