Antwerp

Antwerp (Dutch name: Antwerpen; French name: Anvers) is a city and a municipality in Belgium, its chief centre of commerce and a strong fortified position; it is capital of Antwerp province, in Flanders, one of Belgium's three regions. Antwerp's total population is ca. 457,749 (January 2005). Its total area is 204.51 km² with a population density of 2,238.23 inhabitants per km². The agglomeration has a population of ca. 800,000 (municipality: 457,749 (2005), metropolitan area: ca. 1,225,000 (2004)).

Commerce

Since 1863, when Antwerp was opened to the trade of the outer world by the purchase of the Dutch right to levy toll, its position has completely changed, and no place in Europe made greater progress in that period than the ancient city on the Scheldt.

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The eight principal basins or docks already existing in 1908 were

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• the Little or Bonaparte dock;
• the Great dock, also constructed in Napoleon's time;
• the Kattendijk, built in 1860 and enlarged in 1881;
• the Wood dock;
• the Campine dock, used especially for minerals;
• the Asia dock, which is in direct communication with the Meuse by a canal as well as with the Scheldt;
• the Lefebvre dock; and
• the America dock, which was only opened in 1905.

Two new docks, called "intercalary" because they would fit into whatever scheme might be adopted for the rectification of the course of the Scheldt, were still to be constructed, leading out of the Lefebvre dock and covering 70 acres.

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With the completion of the new maritime lock, ships drawing 30 feet of water would be able to enter these new docks and also the Lefebvre and America docks. In connexion with the projected grande coupure (that is, a cutting through the neck of the loop in the river Scheldt immediately below Antwerp), the importance of these four docks would be greatly increased because they would then flank the new main channel of the river. When the Belgian Chambers voted in February 1906 the sums necessary for the improvement of the harbour of Antwerp no definite scheme was sanctioned, the question being referred to a special mixed commission. The improvements at Antwerp were not confined to the construction of new docks. The quays flanking the Scheldt are 3-½ miles in length. They are constructed of granite, and no expense has been spared in equipping them with hydraulic cranes, warehouses, &c.

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