Zeebrugge [key], outer port of Bruges (Brugge), West Flanders prov., NW Belgium, on the North Sea. Zeebrugge was developed c.1900 to replace the silted-up port of Bruges; it is connected to Bruges by a 6-mi (9.7-km) canal (opened 1907). Zeebrugge has coke and glass factories and oil-storage facilities. It is connected with Harwich, England, by a rail ferry. Used as a German submarine base in World War I, its harbor was sealed (Apr., 1918) by a British naval force under Roger J. B. Keyes.
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