Editing Haarlem (section)

====Water management====
[[File:Gegevens cataloguskaartje Kermis op het Verwulft (28 juni 1855) Potloodtekening van A, Inventarisnummer NL-HlmNHA 53001306.JPG|thumb|Drawing dated 1855 by [[Arnoldus Johannes Eymer]] of the Verwulft during a festival: tents can be seen above the wide arched "overclosure" while a small [[trekschuit]] is moored in the Oude Gracht, indicating a tight squeeze was possible to pass underneath if a (hinged) mast was able to be taken down. The canal was filled in 4 years later in 1859.]] 
Though the old trekvaart was closed for water traffic after railway development, it is still possible to travel by boat from Amsterdam to Haarlem, via the [[ringvaart]] or the [[North Sea Canal]]. Pleasure boating in the summer has become an important Haarlem tourist attraction, though it is not possible to travel all of the original canals as in Amsterdam. The creation of new land in the [[Haarlemmermeer]] [[polder]] from 1852 onwards meant that the city could no longer refresh the water in its canals from the Spaarne river. The increase in industry worsened water quality. In 1859, the Oude Gracht canal stank so badly in the summer that it not only forced visitors away, but posed a public health threat due to [[cholera]] outbreaks. It was filled in to create a new street called the Gedempte Oude Gracht.<ref>"Verwulft" and "Gedempte Oude Gracht", in reference work by [[Dr. Gerda H. Kurtz|Gerda H. Kurtz]], ''De Straat Waarin Wij in Haarlem Wonen'', De Erven F. Bohn N.V., Haarlem, 1965</ref> The periodic cholera outbreaks had not been new, but they had been increasing. In 1591, the city fathers had ordered excavation to build the Verwulft, a wide bridge over the Oude Gracht connecting the north and south portions of the [[Grote Houtstraat]]. Such "overclosures" can still be seen in other Dutch cities, such as the [[Nieuwmarkt]] in Amsterdam.