Visiting Neeltje Jans / the Delta Works

I thought it would be nice to head out with Ryan for a day and show him something of the beautiful country of Holland. Quinn was with opa and oma and I knew she would be in good hands.
So we headed west to the province 'Zeeland', to check out the 'Delta works'. The Delta works is a big construction project of storm surge barriers made to protect the lowlands from the water, because most of Zeeland is at or under sea level. In 1953 the dikes were in poor condition and too low. A major storm caused the dikes to break and the country got flooded. Many people died. Thanks to the storm surge barriers the risk for this to happen again has been reduced to less than once in 4000 years. 

The storm surge barriers act like an open dam. When the weather (and the water) is calm, the barriers are open so that water can flow freely. When there is a storm, the gates close and the water can't get through. Because of this construction, the environmental life in the water and around it remained the same. (If they would have closed off the gates completely, the salt water on the other side slowly would have changed and also the flora and fauna in it).  

The barriers are connected and on top of it is a road, acting like a bridge between the different land parts.

The part of Holland that got flooded in 1953 and the different dams that are build afterwards to prevent another catastrophe like that.

You can actually go into one of the storm surge barriers to see how it is build (above water of course). The major construction that is under water got explained in detail by video and pictures.

A lot of concrete got used to complete the Delta Works. If we only would have known about Martell.......