1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Zaandam

ZAANDAM (incorrectly Saardam), a town of Holland, in the province of North Holland, on the river Zaan, 6½ m. N.W. of Amsterdam, with which it is connected by railway and steamer. Pop. (1905) 23,773. It is of typically Dutch appearance, with low, brightly coloured houses. It has an important trade in timber, and numerous windmills in the vicinity provide power for oil, cement and paper works, timber-sawing and corn-grinding. At Zaandam is preserved the wooden hut which Peter the Great occupied for a week in 1697 while studying shipbuilding and paper-making.