The largest harbor in the world!!  isnt it fun just saying that? the most in the world.... pretty rare i would say to have anything that is the 'most in the world'. so rotterdam has the largest harbor in the world.
And how big is the largest harbor in the world? well... Very!. Rotterdam's personality is and always has been affected by the harbor, evolving it as a blue colar city. even if it's not directly so today.
Still, the city developed through the centuries with the personality of a harbor city, as a manufacturer, as a trade point and not as a purchasing point(the products end point); not the place to necessarily purchase all the products that pass through.

It began in the 14 century as a small fishing harbor at Rotte riverside and only around the 19th century did it really grow to a powerful harbor since a connection was opened to the north sea enabling it to trade with the powerful industrial Germany. From then till today the port has just been growing and expanding. Years ago the first 'Maasvlakte' was built, a land built on top of sea, to provide extra space and expanding opportunities to the port and city of rotterdam.
Now, the second Maasvlakte project is on its way which size is suppose to be 2000 hectares!! it will take years to build but it is truely an amazing project,
and one day im sure youll se a short documentary about it on National Geographic or the Discovery Channel.
 
The wide Maas, in my opinion, is one of the few things that give the city a "European" feel since most of Rotterdam is relatively new (the WW2 story again) it is something that has always been part of the city, connecting the eras together.

A few "dry" statistics about the harbor : every year, around 300 million(!!) tons of goods pass through the harbor.
An average of 30,000 ships/year leave the harbor and 130,000 have it as a destination.
Rotterdam is one of the 500 ship routes that connect one thousand different harbors. It is also the main spot for oil, chemicals, containers, steel, carbon, food and metal transportation in Europe.

When youre along the maas, you can see a great deal of industrial structures, equipment and crates from a distnce, but only when you take a tour can you access the otherwise-unaccessable
areas, and see the vastness of the harbor and of its operations. its really much bigger than what you can see from the city.

to get a bettrer and closer look at everything you have the Wereldhavendagen (the world port festival) where there are alot of nice events, and is completly
dedicated to the harbor and to rotterdam, the harbor city. It gives regular citizens the opportunity to see the life of the harbor up-close and personal. (usually takes place
at the begining of september.)