The Ganzepoot — Flemish for "goose's foot" — is the fan of six canals and a river that all meet the sea at Nieuwpoort, controlled by a complex of sluices and locks. Standing on the bridge above them is an oddly moving experience once you know what happened here. On 28 October 1914 the gates were opened on a high spring tide and seawater flooded a strip of polder land roughly 35 kilometres long and a couple of kilometres wide, halting the German army's advance toward the Channel ports.
The locks are still working infrastructure — small boats and barges still lock through — and the area is easy to walk around. Information boards explain the engineering in plain English. It costs nothing and takes 20–30 minutes.