Interesting fact is that Hendrik Lorentz, the Nobel prize winning physicist, did much of the calculations on how the tide would affect the structure. Based on his calculations the structure was moved to a spot were the movement of the water would have less of an influence.

It’s quite a feat of math and engineering considering that no computers were available to do real simulations.

Interesting paper describing some history and some of the math involved: https://ilorentz.org/history/zuiderzee/Lorentz_linearisation...

> ...commitment...

When 26% of your country lies below sea level you tend to be motivated ;-)