On this day in 1932, in the Netherlands, construction of the Afsluitdijk was completed, converting the Zuiderzee to a freshwater lake, IJsselmeer. The Zuiderzee (Southern Sea) was a large bay south of the North Sea, very important to the Dutch Golden Age as a protected entrance to Dutch harbors. But the North Sea Canal was completed in 1876, providing much shorter entrance to the Amsterdam harbor, and the Dutch population was growing, so land reclamation was needed. The Afsluitdijk has been raised several times. It now carries a causeway and has shipping locks at each end. I wasn't able to find out how much land reclamation was accomplished. Today I meant to go up Stradella to Mulholland and down Benedict Canyon, but I didn't do either. I put Roscomare in my computer instead of Stradella, and when I got to Mulholland, the traffic headed east to Benedict Canyon was too heavy, so I went west and down Sepulveda. An easy ride, and there was even a little bit of sunshine up on Mulholland. But lots of traffic getting back through Santa Monica. I need to remember better that Barrington isn't a good route at rush hour.