Most of Holland is below sea level, a drainage basin for three major rivers. In the Middle Ages, people started building dikes to keep the sea out, and today there are about 1000 miles of them. But in 1953, a sea surge inundated 800 square miles of land, killed 1800 people, destroyed 47,000 homes, 200,000 animals and 300 miles of dikes. That and the hurricanes of '93 and '95 spawned the design and construction of one of the engineering wonders of the world, the Delta Works and Measlandkering. The Delta Works is a series of massive, computer-controlled sea barriers and dams that straddle each of the major rivers emptying into the delta. The Measlandkering is a gigantic and beautiful sea surge barrier a quarter-of-a-mile wide that consists of two horizontal, curved hydraulically-run walls, each of whose giant sea arms is 1000 feet long. Powered by water and electrically-driven windmills, it has over 60 75-foot-high floodgates that remain up in good weather, allowing the three rivers to
$1.99 |
Amazon Video on Demand
Length: 44:00 Aired: 5/21/2003
