Eastern Docklands
| Oostelijk Havengebied | |
|---|---|
| Neighborhood of Amsterdam | |
 |
|
 Location in Amsterdam |
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| Coordinates: 52°22′N 4°56′E / 52.367°N 4.933°ECoordinates: 52°22′N 4°56′E / 52.367°N 4.933°E | |
| Country |
 Netherlands
|
| Province | North Holland |
| COROP | Amsterdam |
| Borough | Oost |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) |
The Eastern Docklands (Dutch: Oostelijk Havengebied) is a neighborhood of Amsterdam, Netherlands, located between the IJ and the Amsterdam–Rhine Canal in the borough of Amsterdam-Oost. The harbor area was constructed in the late nineteenth century to allow for increasing trade with the Dutch East Indies; a new location was necessitated by the construction of the Amsterdam Centraal railway station, which replaced the old quays. East of the new station was a marshy area called De Rietlanden, with the Zeeburgerdijk (then called Sint Antoniesdijk), running via the Zeeburch, a fort, to the Zuiderzee.
The neighborhood consists of the districts: KNSM Island, Java-eiland, Oostelijke Handelskade, Cruquiuseiland, Borneo-eiland and Sporenburg.
The area, about 2/3 water and 1/3 land, consists of an extension of the Oostelijke Handelskade, east of the center of town, and four artificial "islands" (peninsulas), all of which were former industrial and harbor locations. In the early 2000s, after a large-scale reorganization, the city's biggest post-World War II building project, the Eastern Docklands was home to some 17,000 people living in some the highest population densities in the Netherlands.
In the mid-nineteenth century the Dutch government determined that the city's open harbor front was to be filled in to allow for the construction of the Amsterdam Centraal railway station (the city decided on its location in 1869, and it was built 1882-1889), despite objections by the city; the building of the railway station followed necessarily on the Dutch government's decision in 1860 to build a national railroad system. Also, because ship sizes had increased but the Amsterdam's docks had not, competition from other cities began to hurt the city economically; in 1860 Den Helder had overtaken Amsterdam in port activity. To compensate for the loss of that harbor area and to create quays that would allow bigger ships to dock, Amsterdam's city engineer, Jacobus van Niftrik, planned a new quay to the east of the station, the Oostelijke Handelskade. This quay was the start of the Eastern Docklands, which was developed contiguous to the already existing port area, the Spoorwegbassin, which would be used for the transloading of coal and iron ore; railroad tracks are already crisscrossing the area. Other decisions played a part in the construction of the area, such as the digging of the North Sea Canal, decided on in 1862.
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