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National Geographic : 1974 May
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I followed the parade to the Dam Square, the "forum" of the city, where stands the massive National Monument commemo rating the Netherlands' war dead. Here Mr. de Klerk dis mounted and was officially welcomed by Burgomaster Ivo Samkalden. A combination of city manager and lord mayor, the burgomaster of Amsterdam is selected by the national government and appointed by the Queen. Chatting with Sinterklaas and Dr. Samkalden in front of the huge Royal Palace, I learned that this ponderous building was begun in 1648 and that it stands on 13,659 wooden pilings, as solid now as they were three hundred years ago. "All Amsterdam is built this way," Gerard de Klerk told me. "The city is an inverted forest. We still build in the same manner, but now we often use concrete pilings." Canals Commemorate Royalty-and the People I left crowded Dam Square and walked down the Raad huisstraat to the tranquillity of the city's center, with its con centric canals (map, below): the old, inner Singel, meaning belt or girdle; the Herengracht, canal of the gentlemen burghers; the Keizersgracht, named for the Habsburg Emperor Maxi milian I; and the Prinsengracht, honoring the liberator, Prince William of Orange, whose descendant Juliana now reigns over the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The quays of these pale-green canals, hand-paved with red bricks and lined with elm and poplar trees, are a compelling invitation to stroll. So, as hundreds of others do every day, I walked along the Prinsengracht, admiring the tall, narrow, gabled houses built by Dutch merchants in the 17th and 18th centuries. Moored to the quays were some of the 1,100 regis tered and 1,500 illegal houseboats of Amsterdam, picturesque evidence of the chronic housing shortage in this city of 800,000. Boarding one of these tiny floating houses, I met Peter and Ina, and their 3-year-old daughter, Ingrid (page 682). Peter, Though standing still, Amsterdam moves inland as the Dutch reclaim ever more acreage. The city once had direct access to salt water via the Zuiderzee, since dammed to make the freshwater IJsselmeer. Dashed line shows a new reclamation project that will add thousands of acres more between Amsterdam and the sea. 0 50 STATUTEMILES NORTH SEA o ..-. s' o"Antwerp / * Brussels BELGIUM FRA C RMA Y 689
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