It's a shame that there isn't a series of articles on such models --- saw the Chesapeake Bay model (mentioned in a footnote) on a field trip when I was much younger (and it was still in active use for research I believe, yes, as my kids constantly tell me, I'm old).

Simulation used to be essentially impossible, something one dreamed of, or had to pay for time on a Cray or similar supercomputer/cluster.

Apparently, the Chesapeake Bay model was built just as that was becoming feasible:

https://easternshorebrent.com/2017/11/30/doomed-progress-the...

and has since been dismantled and a business park built on the site.