North Holland Canal

At the initiative of king-merchant William I (1772-1843), a large number of canals were dug between 1815 and 1832, both in the Belgian and the Dutch parts of the kingdom. The 'Great North Holland Canal', which circumvented the silting of the Amsterdam harbor at Pampus, was one of the infrastructural projects initiated by King William I. With a length of 80 kilometers, it is the longest canal in the Netherlands. The canal was primarily intended for sea vessels and the (then) largest ships of the Navy.

Construction began in 1819, and 5 years later, on December 15, 1824, the royal frigate Bellona sailed from Amsterdam to Nieuwe Diep in Den Helder for the official opening. In the opposite direction, the merchant ship Christina Bernardina from Batavia entered the canal. A warship and an East Indies trader can easily pass each other, as the North Holland Canal has an unprecedented width of 37 meters and a depth of 7 meters for that time. It was then the widest and deepest canal in the world.

In fact, the canal was created by connecting a number of existing bodies of water, which naturally needed to be widened and deepened. The canal is part of the ring canals of Beemster and Schermer, and north of Alkmaar, a section of the canal follows the old river Rekere.

The canal garnered admiration and international praise in its first 25 years. However, around 1850, steam navigation began to overtake sailing navigation. The canal, which was built for sailing ships, was not designed for large steamships. This accelerated the construction of the North Sea Canal.

To this day, the North Holland Canal remains an important waterway for inland shipping. The North Holland Canal, with its characteristic drawbridges, ferry crossings, and locks, weaves like a ribbon through the North Holland landscape.

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