In normal weather, the yellow fin sits flush in its concrete case on the seabed. the following day, when the two lines converged again. That quick plunge? Physics – more specifically, the fluid dynamics of Bernoulli’s principle, meaning the lagoon level took a quick dip to 50 centimeters, before stabilizing at 80 centimeters for the next 12 hours. On that date, at 8.58 p.m., the MOSE was raised as the tide hit 80 centimeters. The red line, denoting the Adriatic tide level, spiked high at 130 centimeters (51 inches) above the average, while the blue lagoon line followed it for a while, then plunged, then leveled out far below the red line, before eventually descending together. On a recent date, however – Decem– the lines spectacularly diverged. On normal days, both blue and red lines rise and fall together like a heartbeat monitor – spiking at high tide, then hitting a trough at low. One screen monitors the level of the lagoon and the sea levels: blue for the former, red for the latter. It also feeds in information on weather and tide levels, and monitors the barriers when they are raised. Inside, a wall of monitors in the control room streams live CCTV footage of boats passing through the three channels. The control room monitors the lagoon from the safety of the artificial island. It also provides a space for the headquarters of the MOSE, which might otherwise disturb tourists in the campsites and beaches of Punta Sabbioni. So, rather than create a massive barrier of varying height, the island has been created to divide the inlet into two. ![]() Treporti is by far the widest channel, though, and the level of the seabed varies from between 20 to 40 feet here. There are two more entrypoints to the lagoon: at Malamocco, on the southern tip of the Lido, and another one at Chioggia, a fishing town at the southernmost point of the lagoon. The “bocca di Treporti,” or Treporti inlet (“bocca” is Italian for mouth) is an almost mile-wide channel between Punta Sabbioni (the tip of Cavallino-Treporti) and the northernmost point of the Lido island. Overlooking the bucolic island of Sant’Erasmo, with the snow-tufted Dolomites on the horizon, it’s a “no man’s land between the sea and lagoon” where the lagoon and Adriatic waters converge, according to engineer and site director Alessandro Soru. The hub of the project is the specially constructed island floating in the middle of the northernmost entry point to the lagoon. The barriers at the Treporti inlet are split in two by an artificial island HQ. It was, as one Venetian told CNN at the time, “historic… like the first step of Armstrong on the moon.” ![]() It was the first time the MOSE had been raised in adverse weather conditions. ![]() ![]() Usually, that would have put around half the city underwater, but this time, the city remained dry. Their fears were proved groundless on October 3, 2020, however, when, as regularly happens in winter, Venice was hit by an exceptionally high tide.Ī tide that was 135 centimeters (53 inches) above normal levels hit Venice. But it took nearly four decades to build, being beset by delays and corruption to such an extent – a former mayor went on trial for embezzling money from the project – that many Venetians believed it would never work. The MOSE – Italian for Moses, and short for Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico, or Experimental Electromechanical Model – has been in the works since 1984. The nameless island – situated between the peninsula of Cavallino-Treporti (which curls out from the Italian mainland, putting a protective arm around the Venetian lagoon) and the Lido island, a giant sandbar which blocks off most of the historical center of Venice from the Adriatic Sea – is the beating heart of the MOSE: the system of flood barriers that has, after 1,200 years, allowed the floating city to stand up to rising sea levels. In fact, as sinister as it sounds, this 144,000 square meter (35.6 acre) island which keeps a silent tab on Venice around the clock isn’t a malign force – it’s there to protect one of the world’s most fragile cities. The second – as you dock at the private pontoon, walk past the Brutalist concrete façade, and into a “control room” where staff watch monitors tracking the waters around the island 24/7 – is something out of “Squid Game.” The first thing it resembles – this private, manmade island, straddling the Adriatic Sea and the Venetian lagoon – is a Bond villain’s lair.
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