Rotterdam
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Rotterdam. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the chief port and second city of Holland; on the Nieuwe Maas or Meuse, at its junction with the Rotte; about 14 miles from the North Sea, with which it is also directly connected by a ship canal (Nieuwe Waterweg) admitting the largest vessels and not interrupted by a single lock. The town is intersected by numerous canals, which permit large vessels to moor alongside the warehouses in the very center of the city. These canals, which are crossed by innumerable drawbridges and swing bridges, are in many cases lined with rows of trees; and the handsome quay on the river front, 14 miles long, is known as the Boompjes ("little trees"), from a row of elms planted in 1615 and now of great size. Many of the houses are quaint edifices, having their gables to the street, with overhanging upper stories. The principal buildings are the town hall, court houses, exchange, old East India House, Boymans' Museum, containing chiefly Dutch and modern paintings, and the government dockyards and arsenal, besides the numerous churches, of which the mos conspicuous is the Groote Kerk, or Church of St. Lawrence (15th century). The Groote Markt has a statue of Erasmus, a native of the town; and there are fine parks and a large zoölogical garden. Rotterdam contains shipbuilding yards, sugar refineries, distilleries, tobacco factories, and large machine works; but its mainstay is commerce. It not only carries on a very extensive and active trade with Great Britain, the Dutch East and West Indies, and other transoceanic countries, but, as the natural outlet for the entire basin of the Rhine and Meuse, it has developed an important commerce with Germany, Switzerland, and Central Europe. The Maas is crossed by a great railway bridge and another for carriages and foot-passengers. Rotterdam received town rights in 1340, and in 1573 it obtained a vote in the Estates of the Netherlands; but its modern prosperity has been chiefly developed since 1830. Pop. (1919) 506,067.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
one of the chief commercial cities of the Netherlands. It is situated near the mouth of the Rhine, and is the center of an extensive system of canals. A large part of the city stands as it existed during the Middle Ages--an area of narrow, crooked streets and quaint old houses with red tiles and wooden gables. Rotterdam carries on an extensive foreign and domestic trade. It is said that, of European cities, it is second only to London in the amount of freight passing through. The most interesting part of the city is the busy quays, where an army of men and creaking cranes are busy unloading casks, boxes, and barrels--all sorts of merchandise imaginable. In front of the wharves there is a forest of masts. There are 500 acres of harbor and twenty miles of walled quays. A new harbor under construction doubles this capacity. There are large parks, a well kept zoological garden, several interesting churches, an academy of fine arts , numerous museums, and other public buildings. The population in 1907 was 403,000. 2026 Editor's Note: By way of comparison, Rotterdam today has about 660,000 residents, up from the 403,000 of 1907 noted here — the old city center was flattened by bombing in 1940 and wholly rebuilt. (Ed: BR 2026-06-05)