Book Description

Excerpt from Report on the North Sea Canal of Holland: And on the Improvement of Navigation From Rotterdam to the Sea; To the Chief of Engineers, United States Army Even among the gigantic engineering works of the present age, prolific as it is, those of the North Sea Ship Canal will take high rank, not only from their extent and difficulty of execution, but from the important results that will eventually accrue to Amsterdam as a port and Holland as-a country. That great trade which, in the sixteenth century, placed Amsterdam at the head of the commercial cities of Europe, gradually declined, partly from the rise of other ports, but principally from the difficulties of navigation caused by the silting up of the Zuyder - Zee, and, above all, the Pampus Bar. Large vessels were obliged to discharge their cargoes outside, and were then floated over the bar by means of camels, which, when the water was pumped out of them, raised the vessel with them. To remedy this the North Hol land Canal was cut from Buiksluyt, opposite Amsterdam, to the Helder, a distance of 51 miles, and this has been extensively used by vessels of large burden seeking the North Sea. Throughout its length it is 124 feet broad at the surface, and-31 feet at the bottom, and is available for vessels draw ing 18 feet of water. The open sea can be reached in a time varying from eighteen hours to two days. But in winter even this great highway is blocked up by ice, and a large outlay has to be incurred in keeping it clear. Speculators and engineers cast longing looks on the narrow land and shallow water between the Zuyder and the North Seas - the latter from the obvious capabilities of such a route (by which 36 miles would be saved); the former, because they saw not only a direct outlet for Amsterdam trade, but a still 7greater inducement in the land that would arise on each side from out of the waste of water of the Wijker - Meer and the Ij. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.