Plofsluis, Military lock in Nieuwegein, Netherlands
The Plofsluis is a lock in Nieuwegein, in the Netherlands, built across the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal and made up of five concrete chambers. These chambers are filled with rocks and rubble, and the whole structure was designed to be blown up on command to block the flow of water.
The Plofsluis was built in the late 1930s and completed in 1942 during the German occupation. It was part of the New Dutch Waterline, a long-standing defense system that used controlled flooding to stop advancing forces.
The name "Plofsluis" translates roughly to "explosion lock" in English, which points directly to its intended purpose. Walking past it today, you can still see the five heavy concrete chambers that made this kind of controlled flooding possible.
The Plofsluis sits beside the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal and can be seen freely from the outside without any entry requirement. Walking along the canal bank gives you a clear view of the concrete structure from several angles.
The Plofsluis was never actually detonated, even though it was built for exactly that purpose. The presence of such structures along the waterline was often enough of a threat to influence the movement of enemy forces without firing a single charge.
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