Blauwbrug

A bridge dressed for Paris

The Blauwbrug carries traffic across the Amstel between the Amstelstraat and the Waterlooplein. It is a stone bridge with three openings for boats, and it is far more decorated than most of the plain bridges in the centre. It is open air, free, and you can cross it at any hour.

The design borrows from Paris. The city wanted something grand here, and the architect Bastiaan de Greef and his assistant Willem Springer took the Pont Alexandre III as their model. Standing on the pavement, you can see why people talk about the Seine.

Why it is called blue

The name is older than the stone bridge. A wooden bridge stood here from around 1600, and the sources link the blue to the old bridges that came before 1883. One account says the wooden one was painted the blue of the Dutch flag. Another says the old bridges had blue railings. Either way, the name stuck.

It collected other names too. King Willem III wanted to call it the Sophiabrug in 1839, after his wife. In Yiddish it was the Bloubrik, because it was an entrance to the old Jewish quarter. The Yiddish sayings that use the name are all about how you never get free of where you come from.

Built for a show, and criticised for it

The present bridge opened in 1883, the year of the Colonial Exhibition. The council wanted a tram link and a bridge with some show to it. Once it opened, critics said it was too pompous for Amsterdam.

One detail came over from Paris for no good reason. The heavy piers were needed on the Seine to push ice floes away from the bridge. On the slow Amstel they do almost nothing. The arches, though, had to be shorter than the Paris ones. Longer arches would have made the bridge sink into the soft ground.

In 1938 and 1939 the bridge was reworked under the bridge architect Piet Kramer. Iron beams gave way to concrete so it could carry heavier traffic, and some of the decoration went. A restoration in 1999 reversed those changes and gave the bridge its blue colour back.

On 30 April 1980, the day Beatrix became queen, squatters and riot police fought here. The novelist A. F. Th. van der Heijden used that day for his 1983 book De Slag om de Blauwbrug.

What to look for

Start at the corners. Eight granite pylons stand along the bridge, with limestone balustrades between them. Each pylon ends in an imperial crown, the same crown that is on Amsterdam's coat of arms.

Look at the bases of the pylons too. They are shaped like ships' bows. The lamp posts carry shipping motifs, and the lanterns themselves are shaped like crowns. Higher up on the pylons you will find columns with leaf patterns and carved masks.

Then look along the water. The Stopera is next door on one side. Down the river you can see across the Amstel, which gives you the wide view that the 1938 rebuild once opened up. Trams still cross here, so watch the tracks as you take photos.