The Oude Hollandse Waterlinie, formed by the two Wiericken canals with the Lange Weide polder in between, was built on the initiative of Willem III in the disaster year of 1672. It is said that, as a young man of 21, he personally supervised the work from the Knodsenburg farm on the other side of the Rhine. Precisely when the line was to prove its worth, a period of severe frost exposed its essential weakness, at which time the Dutch generals turned and fled. It literally cost Colonel Pain-et-vin his head: he was beheaded as a scapegoat in Alphen.
