Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1908 — WATERY CITIES [?] [ARTICLE]

WATERY CITIES [?]

Remains of Lake Dweller* of Ages • Age Still to be Seen in Italy. These Lake Dwellers followed two distinct systems in forming a support for their dwellings. The first was that of pile driving, the second was that of island making. In the former case plies were driven into the lake and a platform erected upon these on which the houses were built ' In the case ox the latter, masses of timber, mud and stones were dumped in shallow water, and on this artificial island dwellings were then made. The Lake Dwellers flourished thousands of years ago, but their system of building, strange to say, has been followed at a later date by civilized people. Quite a number of the world’s famous cities stand in the border oi the sea or in low places surrounded by water, very much resembling those villages of olden time. The largest of all watery cities is St Petersburg, the capital and largest city of Russia. The city Is built on plies and on islands in and aroupd the delta of the Neva. Even the admiralty quarter of the city, situated on a peninsula, is converted into Islands by canals. These islands are connected with each other and with the peninsula by a large number ox bridges, several of them very flue. The city is elevated but little above the Neva, which has more than once overflowed and caused great destruction of life and property. The banks of the principal canals are protected by walls of granite. St Petersburg owes its existence to a whim of Peter the Great, and only vast and unlimited imperial power would have thought of building a capital on a morass. ,

Hamburg, one of the free cities oi Germany, is another of the cities on stilts, so to speak, being built largely on piles. It is situated at the junction of the Elbe and the Alster, ana the latter river flows through it, ana numerous canals Intersect the city ana communicate with both rivers. Something over sixty bridges span the rivers and canals. Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, is one of the watery cities. It is built on an arm of the Zuyder Zee, in the shape of a half moon, and, as the site is a marsh, is founded on piles driven into the mud. Dikes guard it against tides, which rise higher than the city’s level. A system of canals, in connection with tne > River Amstel, divides the city into about ninety islands, and the canals are crossed by nearly three, hundrea bridges, hence the name of the city, Amsterdam, meaning “the dike or dam of the Amsdel.” The city was only a small fishing village in the thirteenth century, but in the seventeenth century it was the greatest commercial center of Europe, and even now is an active and bustling city. It has a population of nearly four hundred thousand souls. Venice, in northern Italy, is built upon a cluster of islets, eighty in number, in a lagoon which is separated from the Gulf of Venice by a long and narrow sandbank divided into a number of small islands by narrow sea passagas, six in number. Inside of this sandbank and betweefl it and the mainland is the lagoon, in which .are scattered the islands upon which Venice is built As the islands m many places afford no suitable foundation for buildings, the city is largely built upon piles and stones. In many places canals serve tor streets in this city of the waters, ana the carriages are boats called gondolas. The canals are crossed by bridges of strange pattern, very, nigh in the middle but with easy steps, it Is a beautiful city with many attractions, and her structures seem to rise like a fairy vision out of the sea. The city of Ghent, in Belgium, at the junction of the Lys and the Scheldt, is built on twenty-six islands divided by canals and connected bv two hundred and seventy bridges. It is surrounded with gardens and meadows, and in its mingling of land and water resembles Venice. By the great canal which flows into the Scheldt, Ghent is connected with the sea, and it can receive at its docks vessels drawing seventeen feet of water. Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, is situated on a number 'of islands on the shores of the. Baltic sea, and must be considered as one of the watery cities. A large number of canals abound in the lower part of the city. Piles have been sunk in many places and a large part of the city is bum upon these.