Gates at the Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal
Our last stop in our guided tour of Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal are the gates where the water comes out. The Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal effectively sits at the mouth of a canal which I assume was build for the pumping station. The water is blocked by the pumping station and by taking in the water from one side of the pumping station to another, it is possible to control the water level. The water leads to the IJsellmeer, which is another wonder built by the Dutch, more on that later. The water is controlled by large wooden gates. I am not sure how effective the gates are since they don’t see to be watertight. These gates at the type which swing open and I expect that it would be very difficult to make it water tight.
Water Water All Around
I would probably imagine a large piece of watertight gate sliding down and blocking the flow of water but maybe that isn’t really the purpose of this place. The water isn’t really moving right now but I expect it to be very busy when it rains a lot. There are a lot of other pumping stations which carry the slack for this heritage site so it doesn’t really do that much work anymore. However, once in a while, it may be called into service in times of emergency. For that reason, the Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal is still maintained in tip top shape.
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