ABSTRACT
Amsterdam is an eternal battle between man and nature. Not the nature of spectacular rock formations, wild rivers or the furious sea, but the dullest nature there is: sucking, sopping mud. In fact, Amsterdam was built, and still stands, in the middle of a peat bog. In the Middle Ages, its people were repeatedly able to put off building a city wall because the treachery of the surrounding land plus a couple of cannons along the supply routes were regarded as a sufficient deterrent against any attack. To this day, civil engineers are constrained in their ability to realize their plans. They must still consider the proto-IJ, for example, which is a deep, muddy trough in which no solid bed is encountered for dozens of metres below the surface. And the ground is constantly shifting. Whenever an underground car park or metro tunnel is built in Amsterdam, unexpected subterranean movements can occur far away from the actual work.
