Places Named After The River Amstel
Amsterdam took its name from the river. The city developed out of a small fishing village called "Amstelredam", built in the 13th century alongside a dam at the mouth of the river. The town was granted city rights around 1300. The hamlet developed into the small town "Amsteldam", which later became "Amsterdam".
The area through which the river passes is known as the Amstelland. The city and municipality of Amstelveen, the municipality of Ouder-Amstel, the towns of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel and Nes aan de Amstel are all named after the river as well. Amsterdam has a street called Amstel (along the river), a square called Amstelveld and a train station called Amsterdam Amstel.
In the former Dutch colonies in North America, a town was captured from the Swedes in 1655 and renamed Nieuw-Amstel. It is now known as New Castle, Delaware.
Read more about this topic: Amstel
Famous quotes containing the words places, named and/or river:
“Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1947)
“We call it a Society; and go about professing openly the totalest separation, isolation. Our life is not a mutual helpfulness; but rather, cloaked under due laws-of-war, named “fair competition” and so forth, it is a mutual hostility.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
“Sitting in that dusky wilderness, under that dark mountain, by the bright river which was full of reflected light, still I heard the wood thrush sing, as if no higher civilization could be attained. By this time the night was upon us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)