The Zeeburg pumping station has been in the same place since 1879 and still does the same work: keeping the city liveable and clean. The Zeeburg pumping station served before the construction of the North Sea Canal and the Orange locks to flush the canals with the tide of the Zuiderzee. When the IJ was closed off the sea in 1872, this natural ebb and flood difference disappeared.
From that moment until 2010, the canal water was kept clean by pumping water from the IJmeer. Nowadays that is no longer necessary, because all Amsterdam homes are now connected to the sewer. In the meantime there is the current construction: four machines that, with a huge noise, do all the work inside a large hall and lock the water to the IJ and the Markermeer.