The Historic Rotterdam Bridge Makes Room For Jeff Bezos’ Yacht

Jeff Bezos’ 417-foot-long yacht, known as the Y721, wants to reach the open seas by this summer, so the Dutch city of Rotterdam is modifying its Koningshaven Bridge to fit the clearance of the ship.

Koningshaven has a 130-foot clearance, and the former Amazon CEO’s ship stands at 131 feet. The ship is being built in the city by the boat maker Oceano.

Locals know the bridge as “De Hef," which was first constructed in 1878. The news has annoyed the Rotterdam Historical Society, though they did acknowledge that the local government will never change the bridge again after this historic adjustment, according to the NL Times.

“Employment is important, but there are limits to what you can and may do to our heritage,” Tom Wesselink of the Rotterdam Historical society said, according to Market Watch.

The vessel owned by Bezos will be the world’s largest sailing yacht when completed and features a black hull and white superstructure. Oceano reportedly asked the city to temporarily remove parts of the bridge, which last had a renovation in 2017. Oceano and Bezos, who is one of the richest men in the world, offered to pay the city back for the renovations necessary for the yacht to leave the port.

“As the plans look now, the preparation will take about a week... After that week, we remove the middle part, and with a bit of luck, we will have it back a day later. After that it will take another week to put everything back in place,” said Marcel Walravens, who managed the renovation project, as reported by the Dutch television network RTV.

It is not possible to finish the construction of the ship elsewhere, Walravens said, as the size of the vessel makes that an impractical option. The building of the ship also brings employment to the area, which is an incentive to keep the boat in that port.

“From an economic perspective and maintaining employment, the municipality considers this a very important project,” said Walravens.