2017 From the Cutting Room Floor-27
Hudde's stone
The horizontal line on that stone indicates the highth of the sea-dykes around the city in those days. The average high-water level of the (tidal) Zuyderzee by those dykes became the benchmark for the waterlevel in the city's canals - nine ft and five inches below that benchmark. Protection against floods and drainage of dirty canal-water were the main reasons for setting a benchmark for watercontrol. Mayor Hudde had designed a system of locks, watermills and measuring stones with which the Amsterdammers could keep their feet dry and did not become ill from the stench and pollution of the canals. Originally therte were 9 measuring stones, the one in the unicorn lock is the only one that survives. It is a very important stone, because the waterlevel it indicates became the benchmark for all the controlled waterlevels in the country and in most other European countries.Weathered and partly hidden behind a lock door of the Unicorn lock, there is a stone that, together with the entire lock, was declared a municipal historic monument in 2005. It was placed there in 1683, commisioned by mayor Joannes Hudde as a measuring benchmark for the waterlevels in the city.
2017 From the Cutting Room Floor-27
Hudde's stone
The horizontal line on that stone indicates the highth of the sea-dykes around the city in those days. The average high-water level of the (tidal) Zuyderzee by those dykes became the benchmark for the waterlevel in the city's canals - nine ft and five inches below that benchmark. Protection against floods and drainage of dirty canal-water were the main reasons for setting a benchmark for watercontrol. Mayor Hudde had designed a system of locks, watermills and measuring stones with which the Amsterdammers could keep their feet dry and did not become ill from the stench and pollution of the canals. Originally therte were 9 measuring stones, the one in the unicorn lock is the only one that survives. It is a very important stone, because the waterlevel it indicates became the benchmark for all the controlled waterlevels in the country and in most other European countries.Weathered and partly hidden behind a lock door of the Unicorn lock, there is a stone that, together with the entire lock, was declared a municipal historic monument in 2005. It was placed there in 1683, commisioned by mayor Joannes Hudde as a measuring benchmark for the waterlevels in the city.