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Fredrikstad

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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(FREDERIKSTAD), a seaport and manufacturing town of Norway in Smaalenene amt (county), 58 m. S. by E. of Christiania by the Christiania-Gothenburg railway. Pop. (1900) 14,553. It lies at the mouth and on the eastern shore of Christiania fjord, occupying both banks of the great river Glommen, which, descending from the richly-wooded district of Osterdal, floats down vast quantities of timber. The new town on the right bank is therefore a centre of the timber export trade, this place being the principal port in Norway for the export of pit-props, planed boards, and other varieties of timber. There is also a great industry in the making of red bricks, owing to the expansion of Christiania, Gothenburg and other towns. Granite is quarried and exported. Besides the large number of saw and planing mills, there are shipbuilding yards, engine and boiler works, cotton and woollen mills, and factories for acetic acid and naphtha. The harbour, which can be entered by vessels drawing 14 ft., is kept open in winter by an ice-breaker. In the vicinity is the island Hanko, the most fashionable Norwegian seaside resort. The old town on the left bank was founded by Frederick II. in 1567. It was for a long time strongly fortified, and in 1716 Charles XII. of Sweden made a vain attempt to capture it.