Venice mayor cancels bridge ceremony

VENICE, Italy, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- The mayor of Venice, Italy, has canceled Italian President Giorgio Napolitano's planned inauguration of a new high-tech bridge.

Venice Mayor Massimo Cacciari said the bridge, which was named Tuesday after the Italian Constitution, will instead be inaugurated with a toast atop the structure involving those who worked on it, ANSA reported Tuesday.

Cacciari canceled the Sept. 18 inaugural event against the wishes of Napolitano and the Venice City Council because he said he only wanted those who believed in the bridge, which has been dogged by controversy about its price and structural integrity, to be present for its official completion.

"We'll do that, for sure," Cacciari said of his intention to go forward with the bridge-top toast. "We'll go somewhere good together, everyone who believed in it and worked on it, not those who just slammed it. All those who wanted this extraordinary piece of architecture."

The mayor also expressed approval Tuesday of the structure's new name, the Constitution Bridge.

''I think Constitution Bridge is right because it is the 60th anniversary of the Constitution,'' he said.