Afsluitdijk

We were traveling 130kph on the Afsluitdijk, a highway which connects the east and west of the Netherlands. What is amazing about this was that it is build on top of a causeway constructed when the Dutch dammed the Zuiderzee. The Zuiderzee is the inlet of the North Sea which is in the Netherlands. The damming of the Zuiderzee also gave birth to the IJsselmeer which is the dammed portion of the Zuiderzee. The IJsselmeer eventually became freshwater and now serves as a reservoir for the country. At the same time, it would be a shame not to build a road on top of the causeway, this created the 32 kilometer dike named the Afsluitdijk which separates the two bodies of water.

It was amazing to fly through the highway and see only water on both sides of the highway. I wasn’t sure which side was higher but they seem to be about the same. I can’t imagine how one would go about damming this large a body of water but the Dutch have completed this in the year 1932. It was an impressive engineering feat that it was named one of Seven Wonders of the Modern World. I don’t know how legitimate that list is but it shows how impressive this feat is. Looking at our map, I noticed that there was a spot where we would pull over. I didn’t know what it was but we managed to pull over to the right and have a break there.

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