Rotterdam

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History

The settlement at the lower end of the fen stream Rotte (or Rotta, as it was then known, from rot, "muddy", and a, "water", thus "muddy water") dates from at least the year 950. Around 1150, large floods in the area ended development, leading to the construction of protective dikes and dams, including Schielands Hoge Zeedijk ("Schieland's High Sea Dike") along the northern banks of the present-day Nieuwe Maas river. A dam on the Rotte was built in the 1260s and was located at the present-day Hoogstraat ("High Street"). On 7 July 1340, Count Willem IV of Holland granted city rights to Rotterdam, which then had a population of only a few thousand. Around the year 1350, a shipping canal (the Rotterdamse Schie) was completed, which provided Rotterdam access to the larger towns in the north, allowing it to become a local trans-shipment centre between the Netherlands, England and Germany, and to urbanize. Beginning in the 1600s, Rotterdam was involved in the Atlantic slave trade. According to historian Gerhard de Kok, "Rotterdam merchants were the pioneers of the Dutch slave trade". From the 17th century until 1814, when the United Netherlands abolished the Netherlands' involvement in the slave trade at the request of the British government, Dutch slave ships from Rotterdam sailed to Africa and the Americas as part of the triangular trade. Rotterdam merchants also sold significant quantities of gunpowder to Zeeland-based slave ships. The port of Rotterdam grew steadily in importance and became the seat of one of the six chambers of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), the Dutch East India Company, and one of the five chambers of the West-Indische Compagnie (WIC), the Dutch West India Company. The greatest spurt of growth, both in port activity and population,…

Geography

Rotterdam is divided into a northern and a southern part by the river Nieuwe Maas, connected by (from west to east): the Beneluxtunnel; the Maastunnel; the Erasmusbrug; a subway tunnel; the Willemsspoortunnel ('Willems railway tunnel'); the Willemsbrug ('Willems Bridge') together with the Koninginnebrug ('Queen's Bridge'); and the Van Brienenoordbrug ('Van Brienenoord Bridge'). The former railway lift bridge De Hef ('the Lift') is preserved as a Rijksmonument (national heritage site) in lifted position between the Noordereiland ('North Island') and the south of Rotterdam. The city centre is located on the northern bank of the Nieuwe Maas, although recent urban development has extended the centre to parts of southern Rotterdam known as Kop van Zuid ('the Head of South', i.e., the northern part of southern Rotterdam). From its inland core, Rotterdam reaches the North Sea by a swathe of predominantly harbour area. Built mostly behind dikes, large parts of Rotterdam are below sea level. For instance, the Prins Alexander Polder in the northeast of Rotterdam extends below sea level, or rather below Normaal Amsterdams Peil (NAP) or 'Amsterdam Ordnance Datum'. The lowest point in the Netherlands ( below NAP) is situated just to the east of Rotterdam, in the municipality of Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel. The Rotte river no longer joins the Nieuwe Maas directly. Since the early 1980s, when the construction of Rotterdam's second underground line interfered with the Rotte's course, its waters have been pumped through a pipe into the Nieuwe Maas via the Boerengat. Between the summers of 2003 and 2008, an artificial beach was created at the Boompjeskade along the Nieuwe Maas, between the Erasmus Bridge and the Willems Bridge. Swimming was not possible; digging pits was limited to…

Most-observed species

• Eurasian Coot

  Fulica atra Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  59,020
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  45,541
• Gray/Purple Heron

  Ardea cinerea Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  45,081
• Common Chiffchaff

  Phylloscopus collybita (Vieillot, 1817) · Aves
  44,076
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  41,813
• Great Egret

  Ardea alba Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  38,076
• Great Crested Grebe

  Podiceps cristatus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  37,789
• muskrat

  Ondatra zibethicus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Mammalia
  37,707

Most recent

• M 2.9 — 2008-10-11
  19 km WNW of Egmond aan Zee, Netherlands
• M 3.4 — 2001-09-10
  10 km W of Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands
• M 3.8 — 2001-09-09
  7 km W of Egmond aan Zee, Netherlands