The Spaarne is a river, in North Holland. This partially canalized river connects the Ringvaart to a side branch of the North Sea Canal. It runs through Haarlem, Heemstede, and Spaarndam.
The historic canals of Haarlem's moats are connected to the Spaarne. A lock at Spaarndam separates it from the North Sea Canal.According to Sterck-Proot, a historian, the name Spaarne probably comes from Spier, which means reed in old Dutch.The river formerly flowed from the Haarlemmermeer (Haarlem Lake) to the IJ, which used to extend from the Zuiderzee all the way to Velsen. In the 13th century, a dam with locks was constructed at the mouth of the Spaarne where the village of Spaarndam then formed.After a century of planning, Haarlem's Lake was pumped dry in 3 years from 1850–1853 and made into a polder. The Spaarne became a branch of the Ringvaart, lost much of its flow, and became shallower.The construction of the North Sea Canal (completed in 1876) reduced most of the IJ Bay into polders but a small canalized section of the IJ remained at Spaarndam to connect the Spaarne to the new canal.