NORTH HOLLAND CANAL

The 'Great North Holland Canal', which bypassed the silting up of the port of Amsterdam at Pampus, was one of the infrastructural projects initiated by King William I. With a length of 80 kilometres, it is the longest canal in the Netherlands. The canal was primarily intended for seagoing vessels and the (then) largest ships of the Navy.
In fact, the canal was created by connecting a number of existing waters (including the ring canals of the Beemster and the Schermer), which of course had to be widened and deepened.
Construction began in 1819 and 5 years later, on 15 December 1824, the royal frigate Bellona sailed from Amsterdam to the Nieuwe Diep in Den Helder for the official opening. In the opposite direction, the Batavian merchant Christina Bernardina sails into the canal. A warship and an East Indiaman can pass each other without any problems, because the North Holland Canal will have an unprecedented width of 37 metres and a depth of 7 metres. It was the widest and deepest canal in the world at the time.
The North Holland Canal with its characteristic raft bridges, ferries (photo: ferry at Akersloot) and locks runs like a ribbon through the North Holland landscape.

In the photo: The ferry at Akersloot

Biker