[1] This man-made channel terminates at Amsterdam in the closed-off IJ Bay, which in turn connects to the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal.

A few decades later it was decided to dig a new canal at the narrowest point in Holland and thereby providing the shortest route to the sea.

At the eastern end of the canal, east of Amsterdam, the IJ Bay was open to the Zuiderzee until 1872 when the Oranje Locks (Oranjesluizen) were built.

The workers lived in horrid conditions, being housed in huts built from twigs, driftwood, sod, and straw, where disease, fights, and alcohol abuse were rampant.

[2] On 1 November 1876, the North Sea Canal was officially opened by King William III of the Netherlands.

The length of the north pier should be 1500 m to 2500 m and the south jetty of about 3000 m. This is to prevent the silting of the entrance channel and to ensure that vessels entering suffer less from the prevailing south-west and north–south flow along the coast.