Here the newer and bigger elevator for boats in Houdeng - Belgium

Yesterday I posted the elder smaller elevator. This one is a giant ona and 2 larger boats can take place in it since the bassins are some 80 meters long. There are 2 basins, one on each side, which are actuated by cables and the machinery is on the top of the building.

This elevator was a result of the very old belgian languistic fight between the french and dutch speeking Belgian regions.

Indeed, the french speeking Wallonians wanted there coal and steal to be forwarded to North of France Sea Port Dunquerke without the need to pass the dutch speeking flemish region and the port of Antwerp.

So, they built a new, larger chanel from Charleroi to the Meuse, a river in France, and to override this big difference in altitude, they spend some 10 billions of belgian francs (250 millions of Euros) to build this elevator.

When the whole thing was working and ready to go, the big crisis in steel and coal industries in Europe made all belgian factories to close and thus this elevator serves in these days for touristic purposes only.

A nice and expensive challenge that the Belgians mastered here and that never reached it's goals.