How many canals and bridges does Amsterdam have?

The short answer

For canals, the figure you will hear most often is 165, with a combined length of about a hundred kilometres. The Dutch national tourist board, for one, speaks of more than 165 canals covering some hundred kilometres. It is a number that is repeated far more often than it is explained, so treat it as a round figure.

For bridges the spread is wider. The city itself says it has about 1,800 bridges to maintain. The Museum of the Canals speaks of some 1,200. Wikipedia says 1,200, 1,500 or more than 1,900, depending on which article you open. None of these is simply wrong.

Why the counts differ

It depends first on where you draw the edge of Amsterdam. The municipality is far larger than the ring of old canals that visitors walk. By one count there are 1,943 numbered bridges and viaducts in the municipality, and only 252 of them are in the inner city.

It depends next on what you call a bridge. The city’s figure of about 1,800 is everything it has to look after. When it drew up its repair programme in 2020, it classed 829 of them as traffic bridges. A count that includes viaducts will come out higher than one that does not.

For canals the question is what counts as a canal at all. A gracht is a waterway that was dug. The Amstel is a river and the IJ was an arm of the sea, so neither is one, though both are water you cross and sail on. And some canals are no longer there. In the late 19th century the city filled in a number of them to make streets, among them the Rozengracht in the Jordaan.

How the bridges multiplied

According to the Museum of the Canals, a map of the city from the middle of the 16th century shows 35 bridges, all of wood. In the Golden Age there were about 200, and at the start of the 20th century about 350.

Every bridge the city owns has a number as well as, sometimes, a name. The Torensluis over the Singel is bridge 9, the Blauwbrug is bridge 236 and the Magere Brug is bridge 242.

Three bridges worth a look

The Torensluis, on the Singel, dates from 1648 and is said to be the oldest bridge in the city that survives in its original form. It is 42 metres wide, one of the widest in Amsterdam, because a tower once stood on it.

On the Amstel, the Magere Brug is the white wooden drawbridge that still opens for boats, and the Blauwbrug of 1883, a little further along the river, is one of the most richly decorated bridges in the city.