Amsterdam

dam of the Amstel, the chief city of the Netherlands. It is situated on the Amstel River, at the center of a network of canals. The largest of these give passage from the North Sea to steamers of over twenty-feet draught, making Amsterdam an ocean port. The city has the shape of a semicircle, with the diameter following the river. The blocks of the city are of an irregular shape. Canals follow the middle of the streets, dividing the city, as it were, into ninety-four islands. Walks lined with trees follow the canals on either side, and are carried across the river and canals by high bridges of stone, iron, or wood, beneath which boats may glide. Many of the houses and places of business stand with high gable ends toward the streets.

The entire city is built over an old peat bed. The foundations of the buildings are supported on piles. The old statehouse, now a royal palace, stands, it is said, on 13,659 piles, driven deep into the peaty soil. It covers a large city block. Within is a magnificent banqueting hall, 120 feet long, 57 feet wide, and about 90 feet high. It is said to be the largest and most imposing in Europe. The wainscoting is of beautiful Italian marble. Various learned societies, a public university, museum, art gallery, the latter containing Rembrandt's masterpiece, the Night Watch, a botanical and a zoological garden, statues, several theaters, and musical societies give Amsterdam a claim to high rank as a city of learning, leisure, and culture. A modern suburb across the river is a residence section.

Commercially the city is no less prosperous. Seen from a bridge or other point of vantage, the river and principal canals carry a forest of masts. Commerce is free from all tariff duties and is carried on with the Dutch colonies in distant parts of the world as well as with nearby nations. Foods, cloth, dyes, metals, woods, oils, herring, tobacco, furs, dairy products, and bulbs and other nursery stock are handled in enormous quantities. Among prominent local industries, brewing, distilling, sugar refining, sail and rope making, silk weaving, dyeing, preparation of chemicals, cutting and polishing diamonds, making gold and silver plate, printing, and type founding, may be mentioned. Amsterdam is the center of the Dutch Reformed Church.

The country surrounding the city lies chiefly below the sea level. In summer green meadows stretch away in every direction, and are protected from the sea by dikes. Public waterworks have taken the place of rain-water cisterns; palatial hotels and clubs render Amsterdam a pleasant place for tourists. The old city walls have been converted into boulevards. Windmills add to the picturesque appearance of the suburbs. The population in 1908 was 565,656.

The history of Amsterdam is one of commercial ups and downs. In 1200 it was a small fishing village hard by the castle of the lords of Amstel. A century later the count of Holland assumed direct ownership, and granted the town a commercial charter. An irregular semicircle, now occupied by beautiful parks and boulevards, marks the site of a fortifying wall erected in 1482. The union of the seven provinces in 1579, and the formation of the Dutch East India Company in 1602, made Amsterdam the busy mart of a nation that at one time hoped to drive British shipping from the sea. The early name of New York, it may be remembered, was New Amsterdam. The Peace of Westphalia, 1648, closed the rival port of Antwerp and gave Amsterdam a temporary but great advantage. During the Napoleonic wars the ships of Amsterdam lay rotting at the wharves, and wealthy families were reduced to poverty. Amsterdam has been occupied by the army of an enemy more than once. The present defenses consist less in a circle of distant, detached forts, than in a system of sluices whereby low meadows surrounding the city may be flooded miles wide. This mode of defense is effective, except during a winter of unusual severity, when ice is likely to form. The city ranks next to Rotterdam in commercial importance. In 1876 a deep canal was cut, giving Amsterdam a more direct channel to the North Sea.

See Netherlands; Antwerp; Rotterdam; Diamonds; The Hague