A Brill Calendar: May 28

The Afsluitdijk: a "Modern" Wonder

Few constructions compare to the ‘Afsluitdijk’, north in The Netherlands.

Once completed, on May 28 1932, this piece of civil engineering tamed a wild ‘water-wolf’, the Zuiderzee, into an artificial lake, called since then ‘IJsselmeer’.

The dijk was already a national icon when Parliament passed a law to realize the closure in 1918 at the end of the First World War; raising its main propagator, Cornelis Lely (1854 – 1929), to the status of an eternal national hero. With a length of 32 and a half kilometres and a base-width of 140 metres it is the longest dam anywhere; linking Holland with Fryslân.

The Afsluitdijk has a technical function: to protect five provinces bordering the vast expanse of water against flooding, damage and loss of life. Its symbolical function is as important: expressing national solidarity, determination and technical know-how, thus accrediting Holland Inc. world-wide as a unique contractor for similar artefacts. The world hardly needs a second Chinese Wall, but expertise in waterworks is valuable in all ages, particularly if climatic change announces itself with increasing alacrity.

In experiencing ‘in situ’ the stunning miracle between Den Oever and Zürich (Holland) it is seldom that the ‘longue durée’ and the proto-history of the Afsluitdijk is taken into account fully. Yet, the two sluicing systems - at both ends - to control the water-level in the IJsselmeer testify by their name-giving to this pedigree.

One honours Simon Stevin (1548 – 1620), the other Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853 – 1928), both Leyden Professors in physical sciences. The wall built by the ‘Chinese of Europe’ didn’t only require mud, reeds, mats, stone, steel and machinery, but also consistent traditions over the ages in scholarship and learning: Stevin is the Adam of engineering in the Low Countries; while Lorentz’s mastermind designed the mathematical model of the hydro-dynamical system associated with this enormous intervention in Neptune’s Realm.