The Mentor: Holland, v. 2, Num. 6, Serial No. 58. Elmendorf Dwight Lathrop

the famous commercial center of Holland, lies fourteen miles from the North Sea at the union of two rivers, one of which is called the Rotte, and with the great dam erected on its banks gives to the town its name. To a visitor the most notable feature of this great Dutch city is its multitude of bridges, most of which are drawbridges, continually rising and falling like parts of a huge machine.

      Rotterdam received its first municipal privileges in 1340. Its modern prosperity dates from the separation of Belgium from the kingdom of the Netherlands. The largest seagoing ships can now be admitted to the quays of the town. Great cargoes of oil, grain, coffee, tobacco, and coal pass through it, and its cattle market is the most important in Holland.