Haarlemmermeer Museum The Cruquius
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"God created the earth, except for the Netherlands, because the Dutch did that themselves."
And how the Dutch accomplished this ingenious land reclamation was exhibited in Haarlemmermeer Museum The Cruquius.
Steam pumping station De Cruquius was put into operation in 1849. Together with two other steam pumping stations, they drained the Haarlemmermeer in three years and three months. The Waterwolf, as the lake was also named, swallowed up both land and complete villages and became dangerous to larger cities such as Amsterdam and Haarlem. The pumping station with the largest steam engine in the world pumped 320,000 liters of water out of the lake per minute. This is an Olympic swimming pool every 8 minutes!
The steam pumping station was removed from service in 1932 and opened in 1936 as one of the world’s first technical museums. An enthusiastic volunteer gave us an informative tour and an impressive demonstration of the pumping system (not with steam but hydraulics). The Neo-Gothic architecture of the pumping station itself is also worth seeing in detail.
More than 5000 modern pumps fight the water to protect the Dutch today. The visit to The Cruquius made me realize we are still vulnerable and shouldn’t take this fight for granted.
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