Show 1 e uL rh L 7 0 a corn Albria er gee ter c 1 V zen Marken SE Polder Na 7 am S I 4 Aikes ides Canals e 10 o L Pure rn Station a I I MACS S EAST CAST or a aThe The Polders and the I Once Were the Zee by t National at Geographic SocIety D C the recent completion of WITH W the 20 mile dike shutting out the North orth sea the Zee South sea a alake alake lake lIed c the It is n a much smaller body of wirer use because 5 acres ot of the old Zee bed bcd are beIn being reclaimed to fm furnish needed land for 1 he Netherlands fast growIng pop pop- Tile The luider Zee Itself was a small lake lale fed Ced by n a month ot of the Rhine river In pre days discharging Its surplus water ater through four or five small creeks Into the North sea cea Later It spread Itself otter o the surroundIng region Nobody could prevent Its flood flooding Ing Its way from the center out outward ard through S mp country nor could bod v In thoo those days keep leep the North sea from plunging Its breakers lers Into the creeks undermining their banks s sand and widening their channels But ut the are area of dry land between the slowly rising lake and the narrow strIp of sand s dunes along the North sea shore never large enough to feed an ever increasing population soon became too sma small for comfort Besides by conquering others some of the n ar arring arring ring counts and barons succeeded In assuming authority over parts p ot of the country large enough to cn e the necessary nuclei of civilization and to try experiments In whole wholesale ale engineer engineering ing About the time matters here ere put rI right ht In the western I part rt of the coon coun country try there was w wis is n a succession succession of bales ales from the north northwest and nd when the had don do n Ike levo for so 0 It was wac called and the North sea had combined Into an inland sea sen covering an area of about 1000 1 acres from from which only two t hilltops the islands of Urk Uli and ler Ingen The narrow belt helt ot of sand dunes dune id h-id been broken into a string of small elands by deep and widening chin n nels through the tidal streams sm surged ged In and out evers en 21 hours There the Dutch were with Ith a soung and spirited Mediterranean ne right In Inthe inthe the place where every other self reo- reo respecting country has Its center 1 They Made an Inland Sea What are aree e to do Ith It people asked one another on that th memorable ble February ry morning when at last the Azores anti cyclone re re issei ted itself Itself and the sun rose roce 0 oser er a choppy chopp sea co ered wIth the timber and straw str of many houses houses-as houses rent ent in III those days and a lot ot of bodies too The flooded area had been heen a densely pope rated stretch of countr country yielding splendid crops quite In a natural ay Of course th they could not do 10 ans am thIng sith Ith their ness nc born luider lee South sea se tnt tut thc thel tool took jon good care at least st that th It did not gross gron Into nn an ocean l 1 hey put a hl big dam around It right on the spot where h r the had been hl highest hest and tried to fOl forget et their quarrels ls w hen hn l i fre fresh h string of depressions sac felt moving acro across S Atlantic 1 flies he heI I ept their dike In or order order der before til 11 other thins and esen en from Crom time to timE I banks b and bl bits bit's b and what wh fire are called I heels I e the of eddies forming on the Inside of a flooded stretch of higher Comp of a map mlp ot of 1400 ss Ith Ithone ithone one of 1900 1000 discloses disclose's that a lot had bud been done by those gings of na nales les- les both medIe 1 and modern arid by bJ bythe the south esterh rinds carefully crull trained to turn Dutch Dutrh four mills to restore a 1 streamline like qu l it It to the rigged bound of the lee leeFor For five or six centuries at least t Dutch engineers hart had to be content wIth the luider lee hounds bounds and improving thE ss driven drainage SJ system stEm of the loss 10 lying nJ dis Ret Between een ars they amused themselves hs h thinking out plans for rc the ot of cater for pm purposes poses of Inundation thereby exact lug Ing service en Ice as ac It were from the age SR wolf gna at the heart or of Holland as some poet puts It In Inthis Inthis this way they got rid of a good many armies not by dross dro ning them them-m them merely setting them thorough thoroughly ly Iy sa say up to the armpits Start of the Reclamation Re Besides ldes keeping the es In repair lr under time the co e scheme still In existence tho those e Ce 1111 tried rid J h hays s and e cc l ratI I r ils it hi at t but bill gaining g e 1 gs ILl ile cork or on ind is 1 m Oil ors orsis is r td II of III ills Ih I the hI four h hz lakes Ides BIm lie sisti I I and Wormer lyIng to the north ot of m ere attacked and drained by wind power only The biggest late lake of them nil all to the southeast st ot of the center of the bulb growing gro district the city of Haarlem wIthstood all ef ef- ef efforts forts of the pumps to the end It was as only after the steam m en- en engine engine gine had been bLen developed Into an effi- effi efficient clent Po power er plant that the fertile bat bot bottom tom of this lal lake was added between 1848 53 to the ground floor ot of Dutch territory and sold or gIven to colonIsts from different parts ot of the country Though the first daring plan for the Zees Zee's reclamation appeared tn in 1007 the work of draining this huge lake even as late as 1850 would have ha been as stiff a feat of engineering as Ing a tunnel through St Gotthard or bridging Niagara r falls wIth planks on trestles But engineers and states statesmen statesmen men began to speculate about the Zul Zui der Zee and to weigh elgh the pros and cons ot of the problem Reclaiming the Zee would ob obviously Include the buildIng of a abig abig big inclosing dam to aVOId draining dr the Atlantic on a mud bottom right across the sea sel and the establishment of pumpIng units capable of s sallow allow allow- In ing pel permanently to the last drop the thees es C er flo flom flossing m waters of the Rhine mouth feeding the inland sea and dis discharging charging ch them at some orne point where here they could do no harm ere discovered and Im upon and the t way w to the sandy In finel nd Gelderland wis opened to more than th a million millton Dutch Dutchmen Dutchmen men clamorIng for a 11 Ing Holland saw the beginning ot of an Industrial era and so another million or so found breed and chEese a bicycle and a ahome ahome home waiting for tor them on leaving the factory h e millions there thre were ere now nosy but the sl th was gro grossing and n a sv sev- seventh mu must t he reckoned with in a near neal future More Land Needed like I ike Manhattan the now really had become much too cro ded Onis In the Netherlands It Wl sr I not room for shops and offices that th people wanted It lS home home- and arable find Far seeing economists poInted out that something would base ha to be done hv not get et the Zee bottom ready to re cehe the eIghth mIllion Tn in Dr C LeI LeIthe the Dutch nation tIon In found the man It needed to turn It from Its phase of fitful Into one of definite and prospecting so on to the final execution of his corn com prehensile e plan ot of ISm 1591 to connect North r Holland with Ith Friesland by a hean hm dim 00 yards wIde and 20 O miles 9 In len length th separating tIu the venters of the North set sel and the Zee to In coce close four of the most fertile parts of the resulting basin by smaller sm dams and nd to put several everal big pumping sta stations to worl to finish the reclaIming Job use Because of the ot of dl drain aln lug the entire Zee a fresh s a ater ater ter called er 0 I meer after the River Ijssel shish discharges Its miter w Into It would be suffered to remain rem In existence among the four polders to he reclaimed Doctor rely f ely a gifted en engineer minister of public corks 01 I s Shen hen the Dutch gO by bv an act of pir- pir of June 14 WIS 1918 decided to put his plan Into execution On OD ac- ac account account count of the economic depression tol fol loss 10 Ing the World war very little progress progress ress sis lS made malle durIng the first few tew years Rut But some kind ot of stability In prices thou though h on i 1 much higher le lesel than ans am body could have expel ted was reached about 1925 and ork was started In real earnest h o 0 years lIter 1 Though at first It hud had been Intended to start reclaiming the four polders reclaimed areas only after the In dim had been completed thIs plan has been abandoned since As a matter of fact the N orUm est polder hid been completely embanked ed and drained to ard the tho end of 1910 This Is time the one of the new polders that has been reclaimed the other three will be ready about 1 1050 0 The BIg Dim m In 1930 1010 consisted only of a few islands here shere the sluices sere ere In course of construction 1 lime he Inclosing dim was completed on May S 1902 amid i 1 pandemonium of oC sirens anel and hl te 1 The he Dutch nl ni nilion lion rl II anthem ss as broadcast around th time continent lit at 12 i 99 the ex eC pHil paws h fol e the list hucl tt ItJI fur ful or of l d ty IJ f 1 Into its I olace |