The Amstel river has been a vital part of the Netherlands since the Middle Ages and its steady currents have been supplying Amsterdam with water and transportation for over 800 years. During the late 12th century, a group of fishermen settled on the wide banks of a river in the northern part of the ‘lowlands’. They named their new home Aeme-stelle, an old Dutch word that symbolizes an area with an abundance of water. This small township steadily grew into a bustling city and its inhabitants began to reclaim large crops of land from the river’s surrounding marshland. Eventually, they dammed the estuary and renamed their settlement Amsterdam in honor of their accomplishment.Although today the river runs around Amsterdam’s city-center, via the city’s iconic canal belt, it originally flowed directly through Dam Square, where it was suppressed into a slower stream that fed into the river Ij. In the early 20th century, large subterranean pipes were built underneath the square in order to channel the water.