Renee Franks, age 12, of Babbitt, Minn., for her question:
WHY WERE DIKES BUILT AROUND AMSTERDAM?
Netherlands is a small kingdom on the North Sea in northwestern Europe. The country is often called Holland but this name actually refers to only one part of the country. The national government meets in The Hague, although the capital is Amsterdam, 34 miles away.
The city of Amsterdam has a population of about 760,000 with almost 1 million in the metropolitan area.
The citizens of Amsterdam and the Netherlands have a country that at one time was more than 40 percent under water or covered by swamps. The land was literally created by pumping out the water and building dikes to keep the water out.
Drained areas of the Netherlands are called polders. They form rich farmlands and also provide the land for the largest city in the country, Amsterdam.
To make a ploder, the Dutch build a dike around the area to be drained of water. The water is pumped into a series of canals that flow into the North Sea. Windmills were once used to run the pumps, but electricity now drives motors on the pumps. The polders have no natural drainage because they are below sea level. As a result, the pumping must be continued after the polders are built.
Most of the Zuider Zee, once the largest bay in the Netherlands, is being drained. The project is creating about 860 square miles of farmland.
Amsterdam lies well below sea level. A well planned series of interconnected circular canals drains the city. These tree shaded canals actually divide Amsterdam into islands. About 400 bridges connect the islands. Nearly all the houses in Amsterdam are built on wooden piles because the ground is extremely soft and boggy.
Amsterdam has long been known as one of the foremost commercial ports in the world. The Amsterdam harbor faces on the IJ River, an arm of the IJsselmeer. The IJsselmeer is the name of the fresh water bay that has replaced the salt water Zuider Zee.
A canal between Amsterdam and the Rhine River was opened in 1952. This added further to the city's importance as an inland port.
Amsterdam's airport is called Schiphol. It serves as headquarters of the KLM, the Dutch airline.
Amsterdam was founded about 1275. The people of the country and the residents of Amsterdam, especially, have great pride in their long battle against the sea. They take extreme care to protect their hard won land, and are famous for keeping their homes, towns and fields clean and neat.
Land is especially valuable to the Dutch because the country is one of the most thickly populated countries in the world.