Word: rotterdam
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Almost every city in Europe has its white elephant of a cathedral-decaying stone edifices with more maintenance problems than worshipers in the pews. In the Dutch city of Rotterdam, Roman Catholic Bishop Martinus Jansen has come up with a direct, if drastic, solution for his cathedral problem: he has sold it to the wreckers...
...bishop had sound spiritual and temporal reasons for his move. For one thing, his 76-year-old cathedral in the heart of Rotterdam was badly in need of repairs. It had a regular congregation of only 300-and the church seated 1,100. On top of that, the bishop insisted, it was "a very ugly building." Last summer, Jansen auctioned off the cathedral for $1,400,000 to a real estate developer, who plans to put up a 14-story office building in its place. Demolition began in January, and the twin-spired edifice has now been half-destroyed...
...closing of the Suez Canal not only forces tankers to sail 4,700 miles farther around the Cape of Good Hope to European markets but has also caused such a price-boosting scramble to charter additional ships that the cost of hauling crude oil from the Persian Gulf to Rotterdam has jumped from $2.90 to $18.60 a ton. Salvage experts figure that the handful of scuttled ships blocking the waterway could be cleared away in a month, but silting from its sandy banks may require fresh dredging. Oilmen glumly predict that Egypt's Nasser will keep the artery closed...
Patience has never been a virtue of the ambitious Rotterdammers. Since World War II, when 35% of its port facilities was leveled by the Germans, the Dutch city has spent $200 million to build a modern gateway to Europe. Between 1960 and 1966, Rotterdam's oil throughput has soared from 215.4 million bbl. annually to 453.6 million. Making this possible is Europoort's strategic location: five industrialized nations, with a total population of 168 million, are within 400 miles. Refined oil is loaded into trucks and rail cars, hauled inland by barge along the Rhine and Meuse rivers...
Confidence & Cooperation. Credit for Europoort's amazing progress rests squarely with Rotterdam's politicians and businessmen. Rather than wait for a blessing by the national government at The Hague, they have gone ahead with plans in a fait accompli fashion. Last year, for example, the Rotterdammers decided to deepen the port's sea channel to accommodate tankers up to 225,000 tons (present capacity is 130,000). The first of these giants is expected at the end of this year, and the entire project should be completed by late 1969. Typically, by the time The Hague gave...