How The Netherlands Stopped The Wind

tomscott.com - / tomscott - The Delta Works, to the west of the Netherlands, are one of the modern wonders of the world. But there's other, lesser-known infrastructure there too: including the Rozenburg Wind Wall, on the Caland Canal, which turns a dangerous, windy stretch of canal into a much more navigable bit of water. It's a triumph of humanity over nature, and it's astonishing.
Thanks to Dan W - / iamdanw - for letting me borrow his footage from the busier parts of the port of Rotterdam!

[@jkekbe4336]

America: Imperial Rest of the world: Metric Britain: "It's 25 meters tall and a mile long!"

[@FIGHTTHECABLE]

Good one! Haha, the brits are stuck in it everywhere a bit. In the EU, but use Pounds. Drive on the wrong side. Have the strangest parlament rules. Also they use stones, pounds and tons i believe.

[@AvroVulcanXH607]

We drive on the correct side

[@56independent42]

@@FIGHTTHECABLE not in the eu anymore r.i.p. boris jonshon

[@56independent42]

@Ikreisrond no, your dominant eye is normally the right hand one. this means, on the left its easier to focus on the road.

[@brigadier3596]

@@56independent42 well you use the gear shift better with the right hand

[@markkeilys]

that sun peeking in over your shoulder made what you were saying just so much more impactful.

[@TomScottGo]

***** I was very, very happy about the timing. Sheer luck!

[@pietvanvliet1987]

***** It was. Hope you liked it though, as you've experienced most of spring during filming and, quite possibly, two thirds of summer. And next time you're over, I won't mind buying you a beer or two.

[@markkeilys]

Google Nutzer Why?

[@markkeilys]

Google Nutzer Interesting. Could and would you please elaborate? EDIT: extra "you" removed

[@markkeilys]

There are multiple assumptions being layered here. Sorry about that. How would you describe your idea government, and how would that work?

[@simonvreman]

More about the Netherlands. We like people talking about us

[@EveryTongueShallTell]

Netherlandistan, home of the orange mohammed.

[@jerbid_]

but do netherland people like talking about the netherlands to people who are listening?

[@walterclements7968]

@@jerbid_ we're proud of ourselves

[@jenteliefers9011]

@@walterclements7968 precies!

[@wilhelmwilhelm1251]

I like your weed ;)

[@Fennoman12]

That's really neat! I live in the Netherlands and I had no idea this was a thing, I'll have to visit sometime for sure.

[@Michael_Kroes]

Same here. I live in the Netherlands and I didn't know that!

[@argus456]

Michael Kroes I lived in the town next to it for 20 years, never knew those things were for the wind..

[@DaanHowner]

Fennoman Same, haha

[@teinvanderlugt1]

Same 😊

[@Poldovico]

Fennoman "And that is something you might not have known".

[@iloathbirdsss]

That wall's not going to stop the wind. The wind will just use a ladder or dig under it.

[@cas8891]

We kunnen er niet bovenover, we kunnen er niet onderdoor, we moeten er dwars doorheen!

[@Xitenu]

@Kwok Yat Wai r/woooosh

[@deivedux9342]

Watched a 2 minute and 19 seconds ad before watching a 2 minute and 12 seconds video. I'm proud of my new achievement.

[@Zichie]

I bet you a million dollars that the suez canal will build one of these now

[@spacecthulhu399]

I mean we have been time and time again then a disaster happens aderlating get put back like it whas here in the netherlands we built to prevent assistentes and when the happen we make a solutoin to it kinde how you have to think when you are at constaint risk of the country flooding 26% of our land is under sea level

[@0783155]

And this is how it looks when a big ship goes through. It's a tight fit! flic.kr/p/5Uxqx7 This was specifically built because the car carriers arriving nearby are very tall, boxy ships and they catch a lot of wind. I've lived close all my life and have visited this bridge and wind deflectors often.

[@0783155]

@R S It's not amazing. It's our attitude in engineering. We will find a way to do everything, as long as it is practical and can be done somewhat economically. For example the Maasvlakte industrial area is a good example.

[@HarryNewbury]

He gets around a lot.

[@IhaveBigFeet]

Just like ur mum

[@Crick1952]

King KobiGames #rekt

[@HarryNewbury]

I have no comeback, congratulations King KobiGames

[@ErMango]

well, as long as you live in Europe and you are smart enough to find the good plane ticket offers, travelling it's pretty cheap. I used to go to Madrid (from Italy) once a month, always paid less than 60€ both ways.

[@Toastybear1]

"This is a triumph of humans over nature, and it is wonderful" Spoken as a true nerd Tom 😂

[@coolsage999]

They're not the only ones to have that kind of things, the city of Fermont in Québec has 1.3 kilometre wall, 50 meters high (Surprisingly called the "Wall") made to protect not a bit of canal, but an entire city of the wind, and on top of that they even made it useful, they put the city services, shops and lodgings in it, to the point it's even possible for citizens (that do not work in the mines) to stay in it for the whole winter and never go outside of the winter (which lasts 7 months up there)

[@coolsage999]

David Mulder Edit: I love hitting "send" by accident. Anyway, I didn't know about Svappavaara as for the other side well, in some places the wind mostly comes from a single direction and to be honest I don't even remember what my original comment was x.x

[@Thoomas2001]

The Netherlands VS Nature The Netherlands wins

[@dendecmaartens]

we always win. and if we don't we'll find a way to win.

[@TheStraatjutter]

Well if we lose the battle we become better than before as we crawl up , that would be more acurate.

[@ToastiLP]

+Tom Bruggeman I thought when you lose, the country is flooded?

[@Thoomas2001]

red toasti Nope, I live in the southernmost province, where it would be 100% fine.

[@StevenKanaal]

Thomas Joosten not only wins, he winds

[@SteffenThole]

Just the other day we came home from a family trip in one of the Netherlands many Center Parcs. On our way back to Germany we drove through Rotterdam. Then I thought to myself "Hang on a minute, you've seen that wall before... Tom Scott made a video about stopping the wind, didn't he?" And you're absolutely right. We didn't even get out of the car, we just drove past it and still I was blown away by the sheer size of that wall. It's truly amazing.

[@manzilla48]

Central and Northern Europe is such and advanced place

[@lohphat]

manzilla48 Sane and effective tax policies which benefit EVERYONE.

[@Engin33rEli]

My grandparents live in Rozenburg and I have stood at almost the same spot as you have, funny... It is an awesome sight to behold

[@Gilgwathir]

Guess how is wonderful too? The person that brings all that nice footage to me with this wonderful commentary. Keep up the amazing work tom :D

[@tiro0oO5]

Amen

[@KishoreShenoy1994]

I am blown away by this video, or rather not blown away thanks to the structures

[@las1147]

I literally drove by there every week for the past 15 years, and I only just learned what they actually are xD

[@jammerlaan]

I pass them multiple times a week since I'm a traindriver on the harbor train line, and didn't think much of them. But this video made me look at them in another way, very nice.

[@unoriginalenby4311]

that is cool, my brother works on a containership that travels between rotterdam (mostly pernis) and antwerpen

[@tymo7777]

That's got to be one of the coolest things you've shown us Tom, thanks.

[@spunktasticjismmonkey8569]

My family would have loved to have had one of these walls around me growing up, especially after eating a plate of baked beans on toast with cheese. :o)

[@jgmartn]

Spunktastic JismMonkey I read your reply in the voice of Butt-head XD

[@BvousBrainSystems]

I'm impressed that they considered it cheaper to stop the wind rather than re-build the canal to be more practical.

[@jooproos6559]

And how should they change the canal to be more practical??

[@Brondahl]

Could someone expand on how that wall works - it's very evidently more subtle than just "put some concrete in the way" - I imagine there's some interesting fluid dynamics relating to the shapes and ratios of the walls to the gaps?

[@Thiefree]

That is absolutely remarkable. Flat wouldn't work, without the bar wouldn't work, uninterrupted barrier wouldn't work... Those architects have come up with something beautiful and strange and, although I could never have thought it up, I can see instantly why it has to be that way.

[@whitmorec]

Impressive engineering! But it's a little disappointing that the potential wind energy was just dissipated, rather than harnessed. I wonder how feasible it would be to reduce the impact of the wind with turbines, rather than just a wall. Imagine the win-win achieved if the entire port was powered by machines that also made sailing the route that much safer.

[@markknoop6283]

This is build in the 70. And turbines create a wind swirl that is even worse then a storm for these vessels.

[@hornylink]

"we're humans, we'll stop the wind." that's great and all, but can you make people behave reasonably on the internet. and will it blend?

[@timothymclean]

They're humans, they'll behave badly. The only thing more persistent and creative than a few people is _a lot of people._

[@bioniclegoblin6495]

LifelessHawk I know this was 8 months ago, but was that supposed to be an insult or a well-meant wish?

[@hadto8482]

yes censorship or lots of hitmen

[@adenlamb9916]

Concrete dust, Dont breathe this!

[@howtobicycle3853]

Bioniclegoblin I know it’s been 10 months, but I to am curios to know the answer to your question as well...

[@mainmort]

Cycled past this in September. Awesome structure. Wondered what purpose it served. Now I know.

[@gazman237]

I think your presentation style has really improved recently, keep up the interesting facts!

[@baconwizard]

*a flood happens “Don’t worry we’ll just block the ocean” *wind appears “Don’t worry we’ll just block the wind” In the Netherlands nature doesn’t stop you, you stop nature.

[@Gooikes]

And that is our exact way of treating nature: Nice woods! Let build a highway through it, so it splits up in two woods. Double the nature we have and improve infrastructure in one go! There is litterally no nature left in the Netherlands. Sure, we have trees and wild animals and rivers and fields, but there is not 1 single square centimeter that has not been engineered in some way or the other.

[@bramvanduijn8086]

@@Gooikes Quite often those woods have been re-connected with bridges and tunnels. Sadly, that project was stopped by the more recent governments.

[@aprettycoolname4839]

There isn't enough land let's just make more

[@user-le8ul4nr5t]

Dutch people are the true water and air benders

[@Je8Hrjy7gd9]

Im making a note here: huge success.

[@entropyzero5588]

"We are humans. We'll stop the wind."

[@life.with.sabine]

As part of a railway line route to not go over the major bridge, they had to teared down a couple of those big wind blockers and replaced them with smaller diameter ones.

[@tapu_]

People in Netherlands told Dew It (one of the architect) to "Dew it"

[@TaigaXZ]

There is actual lense flare while you were talking omg majestic

[@ewauvwas]

You are the Roman mars of Europe!! I wish you had a podcast!!

[@seamuscavanaugh5933]

Damn why is there a wonder of modern engineering at every other turn in the Netherlands

[@larsboeter2486]

Because there is not a lot of space to put them

[@willemkossen]

I am Dutch, and i didnt know about this thing. Thanks!

[@IcyHotCos]

And here we see Tom litreally making a wall interesting

[@theoriginalstoney]

I live in the Netherlands and can confirm it's still windy as ****

[@MaxvanSchoonderwoerd]

im from the Netherlands, never knew this existed

[@lv5272]

Wow... oh wait no. We Dutch people (like me) have these things and de Deltawerken everywhere except in the province of Limburg that is 300 meters above seawater.

[@rohan1970b]

You should come to the plains of the US. It was done 80-90 years ago. They just used wood (aka trees) instead of concrete and planted them by the dozen or hundreds of miles and around most buildings... They're called shelterbelts

[@markknoop6283]

Like the Dutch used to in the polders way back.

[@imlolly6707]

I live in the Netherlands but never knew of this project!

[@YonatanAvhar]

They should have just built one of these at the Suez Canal /s

[@hshshe867]

G E K O L O N I S E E R D

[@angrytedtalks]

Please stop the wind! OK, OK...I'll lay off the burritos.

[@DrakiniteOfficial]

That's amazing, oh my god.

[@holnrew]

Rotterdam has so many awesome engineered features. I'd love to go one day.

[@Groaznic]

James Kingston would have a field day jumping up and down on those things XD

[@skawesomeone]

i guess they need to make these along the Suez Canal, now

[@TheNiels17]

never knew we had this in our country

[@GijsvanBruggen]

Mind. Blown.

[@Bobdd0]

I wonder if somthign like this would help on the Suez Canal

[@alffbooks]

That's such an amazing project!

[@kurtiskuchcinski2628]

Suez Canal wants your info

[@MissLaLoud]

Suez Canal would like to discuss

[@spcxplrr]

the dutch are in control of all four elements. water: dams earth: land reclamation air: this fire: just controlling fire

[@Loek037]

I'am from the Netherlands and I did not know this existed.

[@PrisonerZero]

Nice video! Wish I got to travel more. On another note, how's the scar coming along? Will we never see the left side of your face in entirety again?

[@whatyousaidbud]

Given the shape of these structures, technically the wind stops the wind.

[@daemonCaptrix]

Most of these comments written in Dutch read remarkably like awkwardly-worded English. I didn't know the languages were that similar. Must be the Germanic roots?

[@dipearbore9149]

Dutch and English are more similar than Dutch and German. Dutch is the most conservative of the three and resembles the original West Germanic language the most.

[@wvisch1]

Dutch is after Frysian(a dailect in de Netherlands) the languages that is most similar to English

[@ian1064]

my mother and half my family still speak frisian its like a mix of danish english dutch and german

[@OverSoft]

Yes, they share the same roots. Many words are similar if not the same and more grammar is the same as well. Both languages have their quirks (pants, for example, still baffles me, why is a single piece of clothing plural?), but it's a pretty easy transition if you're coming from English and put in a couple days of training.

[@IngridRollema]

@wvisch1: Frysk is not a dialect; it's a language.

[@extremebro3557]

1:42 And now I am scared of mothernature....

[@reflex3843]

Very impressive.

[@Dasmaster1]

... You could just make a better bridge.

[@UmVtCg]

+Das Neko Nope, that did'nt work. Location, location location..

[@Dasmaster1]

Rem ko So it makes better sense to literally stop the wind?

[@Thorntonian]

+Das Neko This is the Netherlands we're talking about here. Their solution to not having enough land was to drain the ocean.

[@Dasmaster1]

Thorntonian fair point.

[@martijnsmit8642]

+Thorntonian It was more like raising the ground under the ocean though.

[@johne7100]

You could do some interesting experiments with sound in those nice big curved reflectors...

[@jessenaber2648]

I'm from the Netherlands and even I didn't know this existed

[@JbtSveZauzeto1]

They should really plant a ton of trees all around those things. Maybe even grow some vines on them or something ;P

[@CureMaker1]

wonderful ...

[@michaelwatson113]

This is the sort of thing that humans can achieve when they put their minds to it. And ignore the negative comments and forge ahead.

[@CHMichael]

That would be a great place for art

[@randy45]

Netherlands master of all elements

[@trancehi]

The Netherlands wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the Dutch reclaiming lost land to the sea. They are masters at it and called all over the world for their expertise, on such projects.

[@gary3561]

Been there a few times. On Maasflakte

[@Penguig]

The day Tom made even a wall interesting

[@themoment8782]

Have you ever been to the Maeslantkering when you have been in the Netherlands?

[@someenglishgames]

heet t niet maaslandkering xD

[@brandonkey181]

We did it boys. We've ended *wind.*

[@r.b.4611]

Imagine finding an archaeological site like that!

[@nathanjohn9151]

Mother nature- does her thing every other country-accepts it Netherlands(narrowing eyes)

[@raginmadmangonecrazy]

Would it not be easier to redesign the bridge to have a bigger opening or even put a tunnel through under the canal instead of doing this? I suppose they must have hit some sort of structural limit with the wider bridge gap or that would've been an easy choice. I guess once you have that design for the wind wall the construction isn't that expensive compared to a tunnel

[@keokiracerhalsteren]

There already is a tunnel. Cheaper to build the windbreaker than to break down the old bridge and build a bigger new one.

[@raginmadmangonecrazy]

If there's already a tunnel I'm assuming it's capacity isn't large enough or they wouldn't need the bridge at all. I still can't imagine it was cheaper to build that windbreaker than to expand the tunnel or put another tunnel through. I know tunnels are really expensive but the scope of the windbreaker is so much greater that it must have created higher costs.

[@keokiracerhalsteren]

The bridge carries local traffic and dangerous goods vehicles that aren't permitted in the tunnel (category C, meaning that all goods qualified under category A&B are not allowed to use the tunnel). It's also just a back-up route if anything goes wrong in the tunnel, it pretty much carries traffic to and from the Rotterdam port so if something happens you don't want traffic to have to take massive detours. And the capacity is high enough in the tunnel, it was recently widened to 3 lanes per direction and carries 55.000 vehicles per day. Thats more than sufficient. The tunnel is a lot younger than the bridge though (2004 vs 1969), but there are plans for renovation of the bridge, so breaking it down is not being considered. Also, trains use the bridge, and putting them under the canal would cost ridiculous amounts of money because the slopes can't nearly be as steeps as for road vehicles.

[@Seneric]

I live in the Netherlands and I have never seen this wall. Didn't even know it existed to be honest 😳

[@kepler186f4]

With all that time, money and effort... not to mention the concrete involved, why didn't they just make the lift bridge wider?

[@mandrewhannaford1755]

damn, that was something I did not know

[@Roeland007]

You where so close to my home. I live in Rozenburg, in fact you where less then 1km away from my home judging from the exact point you where standing with the graffiti. Next time your in the neighbourhood you should let me know and I will show you around (I might even be able to get you on the terrain of a couple of the factory's there for a tour).

[@Celrador]

Considering the history of the Netherlands and how they got to their land, they are masters of triumphing over nature anyways. :o

[@alexhaworth757]

I wonder why this was recommended to me now....

[@Liggliluff]

Okay, but you're in Netherlands, so what is "a mile long" in more accurate mesurements?

[@bas9682]

Im a proud dutchie

[@linkVIII]

no wonder tom wanted to make the warning: humans here video

[@elliinspace]

I’m moving to Amsterdam in 5 days and I feel increasingly happy about my decision

[@thiagoschp]

what the ever given needed a couple weeks ago

[@Sodapop420finland]

That's superamazing

[@MalePietje]

Wind, water. Next project we'll block out the sun :D

[@unoriginalenby4311]

no, we already need more

[@vivekprabhu2651]

WindTurbine on each one of them is missing I wonder why

[@ElagabalusRex]

A triumph of engineering, but not one of aesthetics.

[@Arakhor]

You took your contact lenses with you when you went travelling this time? I didn't think people often did that.

[@q.s.9810]

When you talk about stopping the wind instead of our national treasure: broodje hagelslag

[@kyle8952]

tom's shoulder directed by JJ Abrams

[@undeaddutch]

The Netherlands is a country below sea level, we would drown if we wouldn't stay high all the time.

[@sdrawkcab190]

Why aren't they on the other side of the canal as well?

[@GrishaPavlov]

Tom here flew to the Netherlands to film 2 minute video