Taxi for Amsterdam-Schiphol [AMS] from / to Brussels airport

Originally, a “Fort Schiphol” forming part of the Amsterdam defense line, a belt of fortifications around the city, is located near the site of the current airport. Before 1852, the Haarlemmermeer polder (which now adjoins Schiphol) does not yet exist and there is a large lake there, known for its sudden and violent thunderstorms.

From there comes the name of the place: an arm of the lake, located near the municipality of Amstelveen, is called the Schipshol, literally "schip hol", "the hole, the boat refuge1".

The military air base which was created there in September 1916 is a simple aerodrome made up of a few barracks, a meadow serving as a runway. It became civilian on May 17, 1920. When the first civilian aircraft began to use it, from December 1920, it was sometimes called the “Schiphol Marsh”. The French pilots call it ironically "Schiphol-les-Bains" because a Farman Goliath plane has sunk into the mud.

The small airport saw its passenger traffic explode in 1928, with a number of journalists, athletes and personalities going to Amsterdam for the Olympic Games being organized there. The manufacturer Fokker began production of planes next to the airport in 1951.

In 1963, work began to significantly enlarge the airport and create four new runways: the village of Rijk was demolished and the new airport, further west than the original, was inaugurated in 1967, as was the passage of the A4 motorway via Schiphol.

In 1977, construction of the airport business center was completed. In the 1980s, another airport was considered in the Markerwaard to relieve it, but the project was abandoned.

source: Amsterdam Airport Schiphol