Upper side of the boat lift of Strepy-Thieu, located in central Belgium on the Canal du Centre that connects the Meuse and Scheldt rivers, allowing for canal ships up to 1350 tons. Spanning a height of 73 meters between the upstream and downstream water table, it is the largest boat lift in the world, only to be outdone in the future by the Three Gorges dam boat lift now under construction in China. Completed in 2002 this contraption functions by means of two independent counterweighted caissons moving up and down.