Drammen is a city and municipality in the county of Buskerud, Norway. Drammen was established as a municipality January 1, 1838. The rural municipality of Skoger was merged with Drammen January 1, 1964. (And then transferred from the county of Vestfold to the county of Buskerud.) Drammen is one of the larger cities in Norway, and lies about 40 km from the capital of Norway, Oslo. The city centre lies at the end of a valley, on both sides of the river Drammenselva, and where the river meets the Drammensfjord. Drammen is also the main harbor for car and fruit import in Norway. As of January 1, 2006 the population of the urban area of Drammen is 159,704. Drammen is the sixth largest urban area of Norway and occupies territory in no less than five municipalities: Drammen (with about 61percent of the population), Nedre Eiker (23 percent)  Ovre Eiker (8 percent), Lier (5 percent) and Røyken (3 percent.) The total population in Drammen municipality is 57,759. The Norse form of the name was Drafn, and this was originally the name of the inner part of Drammensfjord. The fjord is, however, probably named after the river Dramselva (Norse Drofn), and this again is derived from the old word dröfn, which meant 'wave'. Rock carvings at Askollen and Skogerveien are 6000 to 7000 years old, and are the first signs of human activity in the area. The largest rock carving at Askollen depicts a moose. Drammen originally consisted of three small seaports: Bragernes on the northern side of the Drammenselva river and Stromso and Tangen on the southern side. For trade purposes, small seaports were placed under market towns. Despite their geographical proximity, Bragernes was placed under Christiania and Strømsø under Tonsberg. For this reason, cooperation between the adjacent seaport towns was almost impossible. In 1662 a merger was proposed to unite Strømsø and Bragernes to form a market town with the name Frederiksstrøm. The proposal was rejected by Frederick III of Denmark. Bragernes received limited market town rights in 1715, and merged with Strømsø to gain status as a single city on 19 June 1811.

Its unique geographical location made the city a centre for seafaring, ship building, log driving, timber trade and - from the 19th century - paper and pulp industries. During the 1960s most of the pulp and paper factories along the Drammenselva were closed down. Large parts of the city were ruined in the great fire of 12-13 July 1866, which led to the reconstruction of the city centre, including the characteristic town square and Bragernes church. In 1909, Drammen got the first trolleybus system in Scandinavia, the Drammen trolleybus. The lines ran until 1967. For many years the centre of Drammen suffered from heavy traffic, but in 1999 the opening of the Bragernes tunnel diverted much of the traffic away from the centre of the city. In recent years, the city centre has seen significant regeneration, with the introduction of new housing, shopping facilities, restaurants, cafes and bars, as well as a public pathway along the Drammenselva river. Graphic sourced with thanks from GlommaGuiden.com

Wikipedia articles for Drammen

• Drammen
• Drammen Station
• Marienlyst Stadion
• Drammen Bridge
• Ypsilon (bridge)
• Buskerud County Municipality
• Drammenselva
• Brakerøya Station
• Gulskogen Station
• Konnerud
• Konnerud
• Åskollen
• Åssiden
• Gullaug