Annaschnitfink's Fotothing

Holland
Fort aan De Ham
is also part of the:
Stelling van Amsterdam or Amsterdam Defense Line. The city of Amsterdam (Holland's capital) is surrounded by a chain of forts, dams and sleuzes with a length of 135 kilometer. They were built in a very short period (in between 1880 and 1914) after the French-German war of 1870-1871. Their purpose was to protect Amsterdam. The principal idea was to flood the land surrounding Amsterdam. In a military sense the chain of fortifications, dams and sleuzes was 100 % effective, it was impossible to break through this defense line, until ... the arrival of aeroplanes. By this the whole system became completely and totally obsolete. Since it is a unique defense system in this part of the world it was put on the Unesco World Heritage List in 1996.
If you want more info:
http://www.stelling-amsterdam.org/english/index.htm
The info on this site is in Dutch and in English
De info op deze site is in het nederlands en in het engels.

Fort aan de Ham - translation in English
Defend the railway.
The Fort aan De Ham was relatively small. The total crew consisted of only 139 soldiers. The larger forts had over 300 soldiers. The task of the fort aan De Ham soldiers was restricted to closing and defending the railwayline Uitgeest-Krommenie. The distance to the Fort Krommeniedijk in the north and to the Fort near Veldhuis in the south was relatively small and these latter forts' cannons had to actually cover and protect Fort aan de Ham if necessary. There is a museum in the Fort about the Amsterdam Defense Line.