More than 400 hundred kilometres of canals criss-cross the city of Amsterdam , creating around 90 islands linked by about 1500 bridges. Known as the “ Venice of the North”, Amsterdam ’s canals were originally designed to transport goods and to serve as protective defensive structures. The three main canals Herengracht, Prinsengracht, and Keizersgracht, were dug in the 17th century during the Dutch Golden Age. Construction proceeded from west to east, across the breadth of the lay-out, like a gigantic windshield wiper, not from the centre outwards as a popular myth erroneously has it. The eastern part of the canal was not constructed until later.