Halfweg
Encyclopedia
Halfweg is a town in the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 province of North Holland
North Holland
North Holland |West Frisian]]: Noard-Holland) is a province situated on the North Sea in the northwest part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is Haarlem and its largest city is Amsterdam.-Geography:...

. It is a part of the municipality of Haarlemmerliede en Spaarnwoude
Haarlemmerliede en Spaarnwoude
Haarlemmerliede en Spaarnwoude is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland.-Population centres :The municipality of Haarlemmerliede en Spaarnwoude consists of the following cities, towns, villages and/or districts: Haarlemmerliede, Halfweg, Penningsveer, Spaarndam ,...

, and lies about 8 km east of Haarlem
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

. Its name, which translates as "halfway," comes from its location approximately halfway between Haarlem and Amsterdam.

The statistical area "Halfweg", which also can include the surrounding countryside, has a population of around 2330.

History

In 1632, the Haarlemmertrekvaart
Haarlemmertrekvaart
The Haarlemmertrekvaart is a canal between Amsterdam and Haarlem in the province of North Holland, the Netherlands. It was dug in 1631, making it the oldest tow-canal in Holland...

, a canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...

 from Amsterdam to Haarlem, opened for passenger traffic by trekschuit
Trekschuit
Trekschuit, literal translation 'tugboat', is an old style of horse-drawn boat specific to the Netherlands where it was used for centuries as a means of passenger traffic between cities along trekvaarten, or tow-canals.-History:...

 (towed barges). At the halfway point the passengers needed to disembark and change boats.

A towpath
Towpath
A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge...

 was laid along the canal, and this route has become the Haarlemmerweg (A200). From 1904 to 1957, Halfweg was a stop on the Amsterdam-Haarlem-Zandvoort
Zandvoort
Zandvoort is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland.Zandvoort is one of the major beach resorts of the Netherlands; it has a long sandy beach, bordered by coastal dunes...

 electric tram line.

A sugar factory built in the 19th century was run by CSM Suiker fabriek from 1919 onwards. It closed in the 1990s, but the complex with its sugar silos still dominates the city skyline and is called "Sugar City" today.

Until 1876, Halfweg was right on the southern shores of the IJ Bay
IJ (bay)
The IJ is a river, formerly a bay, in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is known for being Amsterdam's waterfront. The name derives from the generic Germanic term for "water" and is similar to other Aa/Ee names for bodies of water. In Dutch, the name consists of the digraph ij, which is...

. With the construction of the North Sea Canal
North Sea Canal
The North Sea Canal is a Dutch ship canal from Amsterdam to the North Sea at IJmuiden, constructed between 1865 and 1876 to enable seafaring vessels to reach the port of Amsterdam...

, a channel was dug through the IJ and lined with dikes, after which the remaining portions of the IJ Bay were reclaimed and turned into polder
Polder
A polder is a low-lying tract of land enclosed by embankments known as dikes, that forms an artificial hydrological entity, meaning it has no connection with outside water other than through manually-operated devices...

s. As a result, the village of Ruigoord
Ruigoord
Ruigoord is a former island and a village in the Houtrakpolder in the IJ meer in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Amsterdam, and lies about 8 km east of Haarlem....

, formerly an island of the same name, borders Halfweg in the north, as does the town of Zwanenburg in the south.
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