[citation needed] In September and October 2000 a trial opening took place with the intention of letting the audience experience what the museum would be like.

On 2 April 2001 the museum was officially opened by Monique de Vries, Minister of Transport, in the presence of volunteers, sponsors and invited guests.

[3] On November 6, 2003, fifty years after the closure of the last hole in the dike at Ouwerkerk, Minister Remkes declared the four caissons and the surrounding area a National Monument to the 1953 flood.

There is also information on the first days after the storm: the temporary sealing of the dike hole with sandbags, the hundreds of boats that picked up victims from everywhere, and the aid that flowed quickly from many places.

[7] Also, the vigor of the people in their response is remembered: the relief supplies from around the world, thousands of volunteers, the repair of the dike and clean up after the devastation.

[7] The latter part of the third caisson bridges the gap between 1953 and the present: changes in society, the modernisation of daily life and the new approach to water management in the Netherlands.

Touchscreen tables, large screens and a reality-based game show how innovative projects in the field of safety, living and working, and nature influence and reinforce each other.

Information from Staatsbosbeheer, the government agency responsible for forestry and nature reserves, and the Oosterschelde National Park is also available nearby.