The port city of Rotterdam is the second largest city in the Netherlands. The convenient location on the Nieuwe Waterweg helped the port to grow strongly. Since the opening and expansion of Europoort, Rotterdam has one of the largest seaports in the world and is arguably the most important oil transhipment point. Rotterdam is the seat of numerous wholesale companies, banks and primarily port-oriented industries. The city, which was badly damaged in the Second World War, is rich in remarkable examples of modern architecture.
Abbreviated as RTM by Abbreviationfinder, the port city of Rotterdam is located on the New Maas in the ramified mouth of the Rhine and has around 610,000 residents. The urban agglomeration, part of Randstad Holland, has more than one million residents. Rotterdam is the Catholic bishopric and an important center of science and trade. It has a university, academies for fine arts and architecture, a conservatory and numerous research institutes. The city has important museums, including the Prins Hendrik shipping museum and the Boymans-van-Beuningen art museum, several theaters, a concert and congress hall and a zoological garden.
Its function as a trading and port city is of paramount importance. Rotterdam is home to a stock exchange, major banks, insurance companies and wholesalers. More than half of all jobs are concentrated in the transport and trade sectors. The Rotterdam exclave Hoek van Holland on the Nieuwe Waterweg is the outer port of Rotterdam with ferry services to Great Britain and Norway. The district is also a North Sea resort. Rotterdam has a metro and an international airport.
Europoort
Rotterdam is the largest port in the Netherlands and since the Europoort opened in 1966, it has been one of the world’s most important seaports and cargo handling centers.
The port facilities are connected to the North Sea by the Nieuwe Waterweg. The port has a computer-controlled logistics center and special terminals for ore and coal handling. First and foremost are the handling of crude oil, grain, fatty raw materials, food and tobacco. Pipelines lead to Amsterdam, Antwerp and the Rhine-Main area. Most of the port basins are on the left bank of the New Maas, with those closer to the city mainly used for general cargo and container handling (Fig. 3), while bulk goods are mainly handled in the actual Europoort. Three quarters of all envelopes thus go to Europoort. A landmark of the port that can be seen from afar is the 185 m high Euromast, a popular lookout point.
Rotterdam is the largest oil processing center in the world. Other, predominantly port-based branches of industry are steel and mechanical engineering, vehicle construction, paper processing, fertilizer and detergent industry, electrotechnical, textile, food and luxury goods industries as well as the strongly declining shipbuilding industry. The city is connected to the hinterland by a dense network of motorways, railway lines and inland waterways.
Cityscape and history
The settlement of Rotterdam, first mentioned in 1283, received city rights in 1340. The city only experienced a great economic boom as a trading center in the 17th century. Due to the gradual silting up of the harbor, shipping almost completely came to a standstill by the beginning of the 19th century. It was not until the lockless Nieuwe Waterweg, laid out in 1866–1872, that Rotterdam flourished again. The city was badly damaged in World War II.
Of the historical monuments, the Gothic Sint-Laurenskerk, the Sint-Rosaliakerk (18th century) and the Schielandshuis (1662–1665), in which the Historical Museum is located, have been restored. In 1953 the memorial for the destroyed city of OSSIP ZADKINE was created. Rotterdam is rich in evidence of extraordinary architecture. The cube houses in the old port are a sight to see; one of the apartments can be visited. The white Erasmus Bridge has been crossing the Maas since 1996.
