Amsterdammertje
An Amsterdammertje is a typical red-brown street bollard , with which the footpaths are separated from the busy street in Amsterdam . Amsterdammertje translates from Dutch to “Little Amsterdamer”. The bollards are decorated with the three St. Andrew's crosses from the Amsterdam coat of arms .
history
The earliest street bollards in Amsterdam were erected by private individuals around 1800. At this time, more and more homeowners were putting up bollards in front of their houses to protect the hard shoulder from traffic. These bollards were made of iron, especially old cannons , stone or wood. The first cast-iron bollards were manufactured in the late 19th century, and from 1915 there was a standard cast-iron bollard weighing 70 kilograms with the three St. Andrew's crosses from the Amsterdam coat of arms. This bollard largely corresponded to today's Amsterdammertje, but was thinner and heavier.
Since 1972, the Amsterdammertje has no longer been made from the heavy and expensive cast iron, but from steel plates with a height of 1.35 meters and a weight of only 20 kilograms. This type is still used in Amsterdam today, all older bollards have been removed or replaced. In 1984 there were around 100,000 Amsterdammertjes .
Current usage
Since trucks regularly drove over the bollards and cars drive through them, the bollards are no longer an effective method of protecting the hard shoulder and, above all, they cannot effectively prevent parking on the edge. Since the 2000s the hard shoulders were raised slightly, so that the Amsterdammertjes were no longer needed to separate the road from the hard shoulder. Since then, around 2,000 Amsterdammertjes have been removed annually . In 2003 there were only 37,616 Amsterdammertjes left.
New and used Amsterdammertjes are sold online today by the Amsterdam City Council.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Ulli Fischer: Het Amsterdammertje . In: Amsterdam.nl . City of Amsterdam . March 22, 2006. Archived from the original on February 26, 2007. Retrieved October 27, 2015.