AMSTERDAM, formerly called AM STELREDAM, the chief city of the Nether lands, is situated in the province of . North Holland, at the influx of the Amstel to the Ij or Y (pronounced eye), an arm of the Zuyder Zee. The city is built in the shape of a semi circle, and within this semi-circle four canals — the Prinsen Gracht, . Keizer's Gracht, Heeren Gracht and the Singel Gracht — extend in the form of polygonal crescents, nearly parallel to each other, while numerous smaller canals in tersect the city in every direction, dividing it into about 90 islands, with about 300 bridges. The site of Amsterdam was originally a peat bog, and all its buildings rest upon piles that are driven from 14 to 60 feet through a mass of loose sand and mud until they reach a solid stratum of firm clay. This foundation is per fectly secure as long as the piles remain under water. At the beginning of the 13th century it was merely a fishing village, with a small castle, the residence of the lords of Amstel. In 1240 Giescbrecht III of Amstel built a dam to keep out the sea but, in 1296, on account of the share of Giesebrecht IV in the murder of Count Floris of Holland, the rising town passed out of the hands of the counts of Amstel and shortly thereafter, with Amstelland (the dis trict on the banks of the Amstel), it was taken under the protection of the counts of Holland, and from them received several privileges which contributed to its subsequent prosperity. In 1482 it was walled and fortified. After the revolt of the seven provinces (1566) it speedily rose to he their first commercial city and a great asylum for the Flemish Protestants; and in 1585 it was considerably enlarged by the building of the new town on the west. The establishment of the Dutch East India Corn pany (1602) did much to forward the wei being of Amsterdam, which, 20 years later, ha 100,000 inhabitants. In the middle of that cee tiny the war with England so far reduced th commerce of the port that, in 1653, 4,000 hoes, stood uninhabited. Amsterdam had to sa render to the Prussians in 1787, to the Fren:.: in 1795, and the union of Holland with Fran: in 1810 entirely destroyed its foreign while the excise and other new regulations poverished its inland resources. The old firm however, lived through the time of difficu r and in 1815 commerce again began to expand an expansion greatly promoted by the recc: struction of the harbor, the opening in 1876 a new and more direct waterway between the North Sea and the city, and by the building the Merwede Canal in 1892, which places Az sterdam in direct connection with the Rhine.
The city has a fine appearance when sec from the harbor or from the high bridge over the Amstel. Church towers and spires, and perfect forest of masts, relieve the flatness cf the prospect. The old ramparts have beer leveled, planted with trees and formed iax promenades. Between 1866 and 1876 many s cious streets and an extensive park were ad to the city. Tramways have been introduced and the harbor greatly improve. There are suburban steam and electric tram ways and railway communication with all Fab of the country and of Europe. An extensm system of canals and sluices and rich grass meadows surround the city. On the west are a great number of windmills for grinding corn and sawing wood. On each side of the three chief canals, with a row of trees and a carriage way intervening, are handsome residences. The building material is brick, and the houses hay their gables toward the streets, which gives them a picturesque appearance. Amsterdam the centre of the national system of defense There is a fort at the entrance of the harke and sluices several miles from the city whir~ can flood in a few hours the surrounding lael The population, which from 217,024 in sank to 108,179 in 1815, rose steadily to 565;4 in 1908, of whom the majority belonged to Me Dutch Reformed Church. Of the remainder, about 95,000 were Catholics, 60,000 Jews free east Europe and 5,000 Portuguese Jews. The chief industrial establishments are sugar, cam phor and borax refineries, engineering works, mills for polishing diamonds and other precioto stones, ship-building yards, manufactories of sails, ropes, tobacco, silks, gold and silver plate and jewelry, dyes, chemicals, candles, cobalt blue and machinery, rice mills, glass blowinc establishments, lumber mills, breweries, distil leries, with export houses for corn and colonial produce, Amsterdam being the chief market tor the Dutch East Indian trade. There is a rag system of docks, quays and storehouses, and the headquarters of the large shipping com panies are here; 2,152 vessels (tonnage 2,310.• 000) entered the port in 1913 and 1,707 (ton nage 1,844,000) cleared. It is also the financti centre of Holland. The present Bank of the Netherlands dates from 1814, Amsterdam's famous bank of 1609 having been dissolved it 1796.