The lamp standards
Stone imperial crowns along the bridge.
M.Minderhoud โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Jacob Olie โ Public domain ยท Jacob Olie โ Public domain ยท Txllxt TxllxT โ CC BY-SA 4.0
More than fifteen hundred โ far more than Venice. Three are worth stopping on: the Magere Brug, the white wooden drawbridge on the Amstel, the most famous and best at night when its lamps are lit; the Blauwbrug for the width of the view; and the Rijksmuseum bridge in front of the museum. The angle from which seven bridges line up in a single row is at the corner of the Reguliersgracht and the Herengracht.
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The Blauwbrug crosses the Amstel between Waterlooplein and the Rembrandtplein area, and is among the most ornamented of Amsterdam's bridges: stone lamp standards shaped as imperial crowns, and carvings of ships, anchors and fish on the base. The name misleads โ the bridge is not blue. A wooden bridge painted blue stood on the spot from the seventeenth century, and when it was replaced by the present stone bridge in 1883 the old name stayed although the colour had gone. The present bridge was built for the World Exhibition Amsterdam hosted in 1883, and was designed after the grand bridges over the Seine in Paris โ the city wanted to present itself as a modern European capital. Standing on it gives the best open view of the Amstel, among the widest water prospects in the centre, and it is finest at sunset.
Stone imperial crowns along the bridge.
The widest open water prospect in the centre.
Blauwbrug, Amstel, 1011 Amsterdam