Rotterdam has developed from a small town into a major harbour city. In earlier centuries, docks were built on the banks of the
Nieuwe Maas river. In the 19th century, connections between Rotterdam and the
North Sea were poor, with a large
estuary/
delta area with many small
waterways between them. Ships had to sail around
Voorne-Putten to go out to sea. This could take several days or even weeks. To improve the situation, the
Nieuwe Waterweg ("New Waterway"), a large canal, was designed to connect the
Rhine and
Meuse rivers to the sea. The
Nieuwe Waterweg, designed by
Pieter Caland, was to be partly dug, then to further deepen the canal bed by the natural flow of the water. Ultimately however, the last part had to be dug also. Nevertheless, Rotterdam from now on had a direct connection between the sea and harbour areas with sufficient depth. The
Nieuwe Waterweg has since been deepened several times. Over the years the port was further developed seaward by building new docks and harbour-basins. In the 1970s the port was extended into the sea at the south side of the mouth of the Nieuwe Waterweg by completion of the
Maasvlakte (Meuse-plain), a large land reclamation area with even more refineries and storage tanks. This project was called
Europoort, literally the "Gate to Europe". The
Maasvlakte 2 project is extending Europoort even further seaward, but the UK-Netherlands border
is set equidistantly from the
IJmuiden harbour coast line and remains unaffected by the expansion. In the past five years the industrialized skyline has been changed by the addition of large numbers of
wind turbines taking advantage of the exposed coastal conditions. ==Factors for Europoort's success==