Haarlemmermeer

Haarlemmermeer is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is a polder, consisting of land reclaimed from water, and the name Haarlemmermeer means Haarlem's Lake, still referring to the body of water from which the region was reclaimed in the 19th century.

Its main town is Hoofddorp. It is one of the largest towns (pop. ca. 60,000) in the Netherlands whose name is not used as the name of a municipality. This town, together with the rapidly growing towns of Nieuw Vennep and Badhoevedorp, forms part of the Randstad agglomeration.

Population centres

The municipality of Haarlemmermeer consists of the following cities, towns, villages and/or districts: Aalsmeerderbrug, Abbenes, Badhoevedorp, Beinsdorp, Boesingheliede, Buitenkaag, Burgerveen, Cruquius, De Hoek, Hoofddorp, Kabel, Leimuiderbrug, Lijnden, Lisserbroek, Nieuwe Meer, Nieuwebrug, Nieuw-Vennep, Oude Meer, Rijsenhout, Rozenburg, Schiphol, Schiphol/Rijk, Vijfhuizen, Weteringbrug, Zwaanshoek, Zwanenburg.

See location maps.

History

The Haarlemmermeer, i.e. the original body of water is said to have been a relic of a northern arm of the Rhine which passed through the district -mostly a peatbog- in the time of the Romans. In 1531 the Haarlemmermeer had an area of 6430 acres (26 km²), and in its vicinity were three smaller lakes: the Leidsche Meer and the Spiering Meer and the Oude Meer, with a united area of about 7600 acres (31 km²).

The four lakes were formed into one by successive floods. Villages disappeared in the process. One of those villages was Vennep, which the modern Nieuw Vennep was named after. By 1647 the new Haarlemmermeer had an area of about 37,000 acres (150 km²), which a century later had increased to over 42,000 acres (170 km²). In Dutch, that tendency for lakes to enlarge over time is called the waterwolf.

In 1643 Jan Adriaanszoon Leeghwater proposed to endike and drain the lake. Similar schemes, among which those of Nikolaas Samuel Cruquius in 1742 and of Baron van Lijnden van Hemmen in 1820 are worthy of special mention, were brought forward from time to time. But it was not until a furious hurricane in November 1836 drove the waters as far as the gates of Amsterdam, and another on Christmas Day sent them in the opposite direction to submerge the streets of Leiden, that the mind of the nation was seriously turned to the matter.

On August 1 1837, King William I appointed a royal commission of inquiry; the scheme proposed by the commission received the sanction of the Second Chamber in March 1839, and in the following May the work was begun.

The canal (ringvaart) was first dug round the lake to carry the water drainage and boat and ship traffic which had previously gone across the lake. This canal was 38 miles (61 km) long, 23.6 miles (38 km) wide, and 8 ft (2.4 m) deep, and the earth which was taken out of it was used to build a dike from 30 to 54 yd (30 to 50 m) wide around the lake. The area enclosed by the canal was rather more than 70 mile² (180 km²), and the average depth of the lake 13 ft 1.5 in (4 m). As the water had no natural outfall it was calculated that probably 1000 million tons would have to be raised by mechanical means.

800 million tons was actually discharged. Three steam-engines, the Leeghwater and the Cruquius and the Lynden, were built. Pumping began in 1848, and the lake was dry by July 1, 1852. At the first sale of the highest lands along the banks on the 16th of August 1853, about 28 per acre was paid; but the average price afterwards was less. The whole area of 42,096 acres (170 km²) recovered from the waters brought in 9,400,000 forms, or about 780,000, exactly covering the cost of the enterprise; so that the actual cost to the nation was only the amount of the interest on the capital, or about 368,000.

The soil is of various kinds, loam, clay, sand, and peat. Most of it is fertile enough, though in the lower portions there are barren patches where the scanty vegetation is covered with an ochreous deposit. Mineral springs occur containing a very high percentage (3.245 grams per litre) of common salt; and in 1893 a company was formed for working them. Maize, seeds, cattle, butter, and cheese are the principal produce.

The roads which traverse the commune are bordered by pleasant-looking farm-houses built after the various styles of Holland and Friesland and Brabant. Hoofddorp, Venneperdorp or Nieuw Vennep, Abbenes, and the vicinities of the pumping stations are the spots where the population has clustered most thickly.

Haarlemmermeer now is the name of the municipality in the province of North Holland, constituted by the law of the July 16, 1855. Its population increased from 7237 in 1860 to 16,621 in 1900.

The first church was built in 1855; in 1877 there were seven. In 1854 the city of Leiden laid claim to the possession of the new territory, but the courts decided in favor of the nation.

In 1917 a military airport was built near the old fort Schiphol. Nowadays, this airport is one of the major civilian aviation hubs. In 1926 the Amsterdam municipality took over the management of Schiphol. After the airport of Stockholm, Schiphol was the second airport in Europe to have hardened runways, in 1937-1938. The name Schiphol means "ship hole". In the Dutch War of Independence there was a naval battle there.

Transportation

The transportation network in Haarlemmermeer is fully developed. One of the busiest freeways in the Netherlands, the A4 from Amsterdam to Den Haag, crosses right through it. Other freeways are the A5, from Hoofddorp to Badhoevedorp, A9 from Alkmaar to Diemen and the A44, from Nieuw Vennep to Wassenaar.

Schiphol Airport, the principal international airport of the Netherlands is also situated in Haarlemmermeer.

Railway

Nederlandse Spoorwegen, the Dutch national railway company, serves the municipality with three stations: Hoofddorp, Nieuw-Vennep, and Schiphol.

Calatrava bridges

In the presence of HM Queen Beatrix in 2004 three bridges designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava were opened. The bridges span the main canal of the Haarlemmermeer and are called after three string instruments; Harp, Cittern, and Lute.Unfortunately, in 2006 two of those bridges' structures already displayed clear signs of corrosion.

Local government

The municipal council of Haarlemmermeer consists of 39 seats, which are divided as follows:

• Leefbaar Haarlemmermeer (HAP) - 4 seats
• VVD - 10 seats
• CDA - 7 seats
• GroenLinks - 4 seats
• PvdA - 8 seats
• ChristenUnie/SGP - 2 seats
• D66 - 1 seat
• SP - 3 seats

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Statistics are taken from the SDU Staatscourant
• http://web.haarlemmermeer.nl/issverkiezingen/exp_html/index.html

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