Man against the Sea

On our way home from Friesland, we stopped at the one place that all our Dutch relatives said that we had to see: the Afsluitdijk (O-sloo-dike).  The Afsluitdijk is a large earthenwork dam that stretches from Friesland to North Holland across the Zuiderzee, the part of the North Sea that stretches into the Netherlands. 

 

 

Boogaloo and I stand on the walkway at the monument in the center. 
Behind us is the IJsselmeer and the flags of Friesland and North
Holland. 

It was plain to the Dutch even back in the early 1700s that some sort of dam was needed in the area of the Zuiderzee. The farmland was getting salty, and the tides were too much for the minor dikeworks already in place.  However, 20 miles of of earth and sluice gates takes a lot of money, and pumping out an ocean (essentially) takes modern technology like steam power.  The Afsluitdijk construction project officially began in 1920 after a huge flood proved even to Parliamentarians that measures had to be taken. 

 

The Afsluitdijk is constructed on a 90 m base of stones a lot like the ones you see in the picture below.  These stones were loaded into boats and carried to the site of the dike and then placed by hand over the course of the dike. 

 

Over the stones, the engineers put a special kind of clay called boulder clay and then rocks, sand, and earth.  The end result looks like this. 

 

 

I though the Afsliutdijk would be more technological with metal and hinges and lockes.  Apparently , I was thinking of the Delta Works (wikipedia entry) around Amsterdam which were built in the 1950s to regulate flooding and shipping. 

 

The Afsluitdijk is no less impressive in its own way.  It has four gates that systematically pump water out of the IJsselmeer into the North Sea at low tide every day. 

 

 

It's an uncanny feeling to stand on the top of the dike facing north and see the that water to your left is distinctly higher than the water to your right. It's also very hard to capture with a camera.  We made several valiant efforts, but this is the best we could do. 

 

 

 The IJsselmeer, which was once ocean, is now fresh water, a testament to Dutch dam building technique and the amount of rain the Netherlands gets each year.  It's also a bit mind boggling.  This is definitely man-made environmental change, but it seems to have worked out for all concerned.  Boo was fascinated by the water, and we had to watch her pretty constantly to keep her out of the foam.  If you look at the jetty she's running on, you can see the foundation stones of the dike. 

 

If you get the Afsluitdijk, there is a monument to the hard work and ingenuity of the Dutch people in the middle of it.  You can climb to the top of the monument and look out at the Waddenzee and the IJsselmeer.  Then you can stop at the gift shop on the first floor on your way to the coffee shop in the basement.  Really, at this point on the dike, coffee is probably a good idea.  It's cold out there. 

Add caption

Seth on top of a minor dike on the Waddenzee side of the Afslluitdijk. 

Sources beyond my observations:
Deltaworken Online.  2004.  The Stitchting Deltaworken Online. 
www.deltaworken.com

Aflsuitdijk.  Wikipedia. Accessed 9/17/2012. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afsluitdijk