Jeff Bezos’ new yacht is so big that a Dutch city will have to dismantle a historic bridge in order for it to reach the sea.
Jeff Bezos‘ new yacht is so big that a Dutch city will have to dismantle a historic bridge to reach the sea.
Jeff Bezos is paying the Dutch city of Rotterdam to dismantle and then rebuild part of a historic 95-year-old bridge to allow his new superyacht, the world’s tallest, to cross it and out to sea.
When completed, it will be taller than the bridge, so the ship company has asked the city to tear down the middle of the bridge to allow passage.
While the city of Rotterdam does not yet have an assessment of how much it would cost to deconstruct the bridge, Bezos‘ three-masted sailing yacht will be the world’s largest when completed this summer at 417 feet long, and is estimated to cost around of $500 million.
If the city agrees, the government plans to rebuild the bridge later, and Oceanco will have to pay for all the work done on the bridge. The job is expected to take a few weeks.
Many people are upset that a historical monument is being taken down for a rich person’s boat.
The Koningshaven River is the only path the sailing ship can take to the sea.
The mayor also pointed out that both the work on the ships and on the bridge generate many jobs for the local population.
Controversy was also generated in the United States, where 36% of bridges need repairs for being “structurally deficient”, and motorists risk their lives crossing these structures 167.5 million times a day.
The estimated cost to replace all structurally deficient bridges in the US is approximately $58 billion.
With his $176.5 billion estate, Bezos could replace all those bridges, buy his superyacht, and still have $118 billion left.
