Working Mill. Gemeenschapsmolen/Gaaspermolen, Driemond, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
On this photo you can't see the landscape behind the Community or Gaasper Windmill. The polder lies too low under the levee - where I'm standing for this photo - bounding the Gaasp, a river on the eastern border of Amsterdam. That polder was the result at the beginning of the eighteenth century of the amalgamation of eight smaller ones. The mills draining the ditches of those polders into the Gaasp, their bosom, were pulled down and replaced by our mill which was built in 1708. For two centuries it was a scoop wheel construction which was then replaced by a screw pump. Restored at the beginning of our own century, It's still one of few working windmills in this area. If there's little or no wind the windmill's function is taken over by an adjoining electric pumping station.
Working Mill. Gemeenschapsmolen/Gaaspermolen, Driemond, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
On this photo you can't see the landscape behind the Community or Gaasper Windmill. The polder lies too low under the levee - where I'm standing for this photo - bounding the Gaasp, a river on the eastern border of Amsterdam. That polder was the result at the beginning of the eighteenth century of the amalgamation of eight smaller ones. The mills draining the ditches of those polders into the Gaasp, their bosom, were pulled down and replaced by our mill which was built in 1708. For two centuries it was a scoop wheel construction which was then replaced by a screw pump. Restored at the beginning of our own century, It's still one of few working windmills in this area. If there's little or no wind the windmill's function is taken over by an adjoining electric pumping station.