What is now commonly known simply as the Waterlinie, is actually the second version: the “Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie”.

The older version ((Oude) Hollandse Waterlinie) was formed in 1672 by inundating a stretch of land to stop the French army taking the region Holland (which roughly consisted of what are now the provinces Noord and Zuid Holland). Utrecht was outside this defense since at that time the city had already been taken in by the French troops.

From 1816 the defense line was moved eastwards, to include the city of Utrecht. It was then called Utrechtse Linie. By that time, most of the old Waterlinie had already been demolished.

Since 1865 it’s called the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie, and subdivided into a number of areas. At the points where the defense line was breached by access points such as roads, railways, rivers and dikes, forts were built; here troops were housed and artillery was positioned. These forts, as well as a number of old city strongholds like Naarden and Weesp are also part of the Waterlinie, in addition to the system of waterworks and sluices that enabled the actual inundation.

The Waterlinie was used at the start of the French-German war in 1870, as well as during World War I. Even in 1939, at the beginning of World War II, it was inundated, though it was later decided to move the defense line to the Grebbelinie. When the Germans breached this after a few days, the Waterlinie had already been breached near Dordrecht, and Rotterdam bombarded. In an era of arial warfare, inundation of land had largely become ineffective.

There is much to do and enjoy at the present-day Waterlinie: boating, walking or cycling (admiring the engineering works along the way); and many of the forts and city strongholds are worth a visit.

Note: See also the Stelling van Amsterdam which is another “waterlinie” type of defense line.