Afluitsdijk, Commemorative sculpture to 1930's construction, causeway separating Zuiderzee from Ijsselmeer AFLUITSDIJK
Dykes are everywhere; the largest is the Afsluitdijk in the northern area, finished in the 1930's. It is a 20-mile causeway to Friesland province. It holds back the North Sea (Zuiderzee inlet) from the fresh water lake, Ijsselmeer. Not clear what was saline or not before the dyke, but it appears that it was also saline but not sea-water strength. See the size of it in Afluitsdyk photos at outdoors.webshots.com/album/552587230IKkFdP. The major highway across the dyke is close to sea level - 7-9 meters.
It has sluices that flush in and out to maintain the salt that is in the Ijsselmeer, for ecological reasons; and to adjust for storms. Would Mississippi benefit from the technology? It is a matter of will, not way.
URK- The Island that is now a peninsula
The effect of the dykes, especially the Afluitsdyke and overall reclamation, has been to turn islands into towns on the mainland.
Urk Island Lighthouse, now inland (land reclamation), the NetherlandsUrk had been a remote fishing village, isolated on its own island, in the Ijsselmeer, east coastal area. With the large Afsluitdijk, the causeway across the northern Netherlands, now across from North Holland to Friesland, land is being reclaimed. Urk, that once was an island with its lighthouse, is now mainland. The lighthouse at Urk is listed at www.lighthousedepot.com/database/uniquelighthouse.cfm?value=2140.
Urk dates from the 900's. See the history of Urk at www.answers.com/topic/urk. One of the oldest Dutch dialects is spoken there. See Urk overview at experts.about.com/e/u/ur/Urk.
Much of the land that had been underwater is now agricultural land. Wikipedia has a comprehensible writeup on these polders at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polder.
Urk, the Netherlands. Waterfront. Once a fishermen's community on an island, land reclaimed and getting yuppie.
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