| Most of Holland is below sea level, a drainage basin for three major rivers. This problem has plagued the country with periodic flooding, killer sea swells and massive loss of crops and life since the Middle Ages. In 1995, after a pounding from a world-class hurricane, workers began constructing one of the engineering wonders of the world – the Delta Works and Measlandkering – a series of barriers designed to protect the country from the encroaching sea. Watch as designers reveal the inner workings of these surprisingly sophisticated contraptions. The Delta Works is a network of massive, computer-controlled sea barriers and dams that straddle each of the major rivers emptying into the delta. While the Measlandkering is a gigantic sea surge barrier a quarter-of-a-mile wide that consists of two horizontal, hydraulically-run walls, each of whose giant sea "arms? is 1,000 feet long. Technicians demonstrate the practical power source behind the barriers – the Netherlands' famous, electrically-driven windmills! The system's 60 floodgates – each 75 feet high -remain standing in good weather, allowing the three rivers to flow into the sea, but are lowered in less than an hour for threatening storms. In 1995, 200,000 people fled for their lives as the sea came crashing in. But with the addition of the Delta Works and the Measlandkering – holding the worst the angry sea can throw – the countryside and its people are assured to be safer and drier! |
