Rotterdam

Settlement at the lower end of the fen stream Rotte dates from at least 900.A dam was built in the 1260s or 1270s to prevent high water and storm tides from flooding the land through the Rotte’s course. On June 7, 1340, Count Willem IV of Holland granted city rights to Rotterdam, which then had an approximate 2,000 inhabitants.
The port of Rotterdam slowly but steadily grew into a port of importance, becoming the seat of one of the six chambers of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), or the Dutch East India Company.
The greatest spurt of growth, both in port activity and population, followed after the completion of the Nieuwe Waterweg in 1872. The city and harbor started to expand on the South bank of the river. Delivering evidence of its rapid growth and success is the skyscraper in the French Chateau style, the White House, or Witte Huis, built in the American spirit of office buildings in 1898; its height is 45 m, it was at the time of completion the tallest office building in Europe.
On May 14, 1940, Rotterdam was bombed by the German Luftwaffe, on the last of five days of war in the Netherlands (except in the province of Zeeland). The heart of the city was almost completely destroyed. From the 1950s through the 1970s, the city was rebuilt. It remained quite windy and open until the city councils from the 1980s on began developing an active architectural policy. Daring and new styles of apartments, office buildings and recreation facilities resulted in a more 'livable' city center with a new skyline. In the 1990s, a new business center on the south bank of the river, the Kop van Zuid has been built. The City Hall survived the bombing campaign.