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The Dutch vow to egg Jeff Bezos' yacht if a bridge is dismantled to let his boat pass

Rachel Treisman

Rotterdam residents appear to be up in arms over a plan to temporarily dismantle the Koningshaven lift bridge, popularly called "De Hef." Remko de Waal/ANP/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Rotterdam residents appear to be up in arms over a plan to temporarily dismantle the Koningshaven lift bridge, popularly called "De Hef."

It's not exactly smooth sailing these days in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, where locals are voicing their objection to a plan that would temporarily dismantle a historic bridge to enable the passage of a record-breaking yacht reportedly owned by former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

In fact, some are already making plans — albeit in jest — for what they will do if the project comes to fruition: throw eggs at the yacht as it traverses the water under the Koningshaven Bridge, known locally as "De Hef."

Some 13,000 people are "interested" and nearly 4,000 have said they will attend a Facebook event titled "Throwing eggs at superyacht Jeff Bezos," which has been shared more than 1,000 times in the week since its creation.

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"Calling all Rotterdammers, take a box of rotten eggs with you and let's throw them en masse at Jeff's superyacht when it sails through the Hef in Rotterdam," wrote organizer Pablo Strörmann.

He told the NL Times that the protest started as a joke among friends and has quickly gotten "way out of hand." (The English-language news site also notes that this isn't Strörmann's first campaign to go viral.)

The news of De Hef's potential disassembly, however brief, has clearly struck a chord with both locals and international observers.

It all started last week when Dutch broadcaster Rijnmond reported that the city appeared willing to grant a request to dismantle the decades-old steel bridge so that Bezos' yacht could pass through.

De Hef was built in 1927 as a railway bridge, with a midsection that can be lifted to allow ship traffic to pass underneath, according to The Washington Post . It was replaced by a tunnel and decommissioned in 1994, but was saved from demolition by public protests and later declared a national monument.

The ship's three masts are apparently too high for the bridge's roughly 130-foot clearance.

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The sailing yacht in question was reportedly commissioned by the billionaire Amazon founder and is currently being built at the Oceanco shipyard in the Netherlands, according to Boat International . It will consist of three masts with aluminum and steel construction and will measure more than 415 feet in length.

"Once delivered, not only will she become the world's largest sailing yacht but she will also hold the title for the largest superyacht ever built in the Netherlands," it added.

The waterway where the bridge sits is the only way the ship can get from the shipyard in Alblasserdam to the open seas, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . So Oceanco asked Rotterdam officials to temporarily remove the middle section of the bridge.

City spokesperson Netty Kros told the CBC that "the applicant" would cover the costs of the project but did not clarify whether that refers to the yacht's owner, the shipbuilder or both. Bloomberg reports that Oceanco will foot the bill. NPR has reached out to Amazon and Oceanco to confirm these details.

The city appeared to agree to the arrangement last week, with municipal project leader Marcel Walravens telling Rijnmond that the project would proceed for logistical and economic reasons. He said an exact plan was being developed but estimated it would take about a week to prepare and another week to "put everything back in place."

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"At the Koningenne Bridge, we can press a button, and it opens. That's not possible here because De Hef has a maximum height," Walravens said, according to a translation from the NL Times . "The only alternative is to take out the middle part."

That prompted an immediate backlash from locals, lawmakers and social media users, with the Rotterdam Historical Society pointing out that city officials had promised never to dismantle the bridge again after completing a major restoration in 2017.

Officials then walked back the reports, with Rotterdam's mayor telling a Dutch newspaper on Thursday that "no decision has yet been taken, not even an application for a permit," according to The Guardian .

He said the municipality would consider an application and assess the potential impacts, like whether the dismantling can be done without damaging the bridge and who would cover the costs.

Postcard from Rotterdam

Proponents of the plan say the project will bring more economic opportunities to the region, while critics say there's a double standard at play.

"Normally it's the other way around: If your ship doesn't fit under a bridge, you make it smaller," Strörmann told the NL Times. "But when you happen to be the richest person on Earth, you just ask a municipality to dismantle a monument. That's ridiculous."

With a net worth of more than $188 billion, Bezos is the third-richest person in the world behind Tesla founder Elon Musk and French businessman Bernard Arnault, according to Forbes' real-time list .

Hypothetically, if the project does come to pass, and locals do show up with eggs, just how hard of a moving target would the yacht be? The website Curbed set out to find out.

After examining several studies and making a few calculations, reporter Clio Chang says an egg would have to travel about 238 feet to hit the hull — "a difficult, but not impossible, feat."

This story originally appeared on the Morning Edition live blog .

• Netherlands
• shipbuilding

Rotterdam Now Won't Dismantle a Historic Bridge for Jeff Bezos's Superyacht

The Amazon founder's new sailing yacht is too tall to pass under the historic Koningshaven bridge.

"We’re happy it’s not happening," Marvin Biljoen, a councilman for GroenLinks, the Dutch Green Party, told the New York Times . "T he bridge is a national monument, which shouldn’t be altered too much. That you could still do that with money anyway bothers us."

Last week, Oceano quietly towed the yacht up the river in the early hours of the morning to a different shipyard, and now, Bezos's boat is nearly completed. The YouTube channel Dutch Yachting shared a video of the boat, and it has three large masts completed:

Expect the superyacht to be on the open seas soon.

Original 2/7/22 : The European port of Rotterdam will dismantle part of its iconic Koningshaven bridge for Jeff Bezos. The billionaire's new yacht is being built in Alblasserdam, in the western Netherlands, and will be too tall to pass under the bridge.

"It's the only route to the sea," a spokesperson for the mayor of Rotterdam told AFP , confirming the news of the bridge's dismantling. According to Dutch news , ship builder Oceanco convinced the city to dismantle part of the bridge. The Rotterdam mayor's spokesperson also confirmed that Bezos would pay for the dismantling and rebuilding of the bridge.

In November, Oceano's chairman, Omani businessman Dr. Mohammed Al Barwani, spoke of the 127 meter (416 feet) sailing yacht the company was working on without mentioning Bezos. Later, Boat International identified the 127m yacht as the one commissioned by the Amazon founder.

The Koningshaven bridge, known locally as the De Hef bridge , was built in 1877. During World War II, the bridge was significantly damaged and rebuilt, subsequently recognized as a historic monument. Between 2014 and 2017, the bridge underwent a restoration, and officials promised it would not be dismantled again.

"From an economic perspective and maintaining employment, the municipality considers this a very important project," Marcel Walravens, the leader of the proposed dismantling project, told Dutch broadcaster Rijnmond . "Rotterdam has also been declared the maritime capital of Europe. Shipbuilding and activity within that sector are therefore an important pillar for the municipality." Walravens says the project will likely take place sometime this summer.

Dennis Tak, a Labor Party city councilor, said he was OK with the dismantling of the Koningshaven bridge because Bezos is paying for it, and it would create jobs. "As a city, this is a great way to take some of his money," Tak told the New York Times .

Dutch residents are not happy, however; they plan to throw rotten eggs at Jeff Bezos's superyacht as it passes through the Rotterdam harbor. Business Insider reports Rotterdam locals are planning an event called "Throwing eggs at Jeff Bezos' superyacht" in protest.

"Calling all Rotterdammers, take a box of rotten eggs with you and let's throw them en masse at Jeff's superyacht when it sails through the Hef in Rotterdam," the event description reads on Facebook. "Rotterdam was built from the rubble by the people of Rotterdam, and we don't just take that apart for the phallic symbol of a megalomaniac billionaire. Not without a fight!" 3,300 people have RSVP'd as going, and 11,600 are interested in the event.

When Bezos's yacht, known as Y721, is delivered later this year—after the bridge is dismantled—the boat will become the world's largest sailing yacht, a title that has been held for nearly a century by American socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post's 1931 boat Sea Cloud .

Along with making history as the largest sailing yacht, Bezos's Y271 is the longest yacht to have ever been built in the Netherlands, and Oceano's largest ever superyacht. It is also rumored to come with a "support yacht," also called a shadow vessel. The superyacht likely cost more than $500 million to build, per Bloomberg .

Bezos is also reportedly the owner of the Flying Fox, a $400 million megayacht.

Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma , a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram .

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Rotterdam May Dismantle Part of Bridge for Jeff Bezos’ Superyacht

The Dutch city of Rotterdam walked back earlier comments that the historic Koningshaven Bridge would be briefly dismantled. On Thursday, officials said a decision had not yet been made.

By Jenny Gross

The Dutch city of Rotterdam on Thursday walked back plans to dismantle part of the historic Koningshaven Bridge so that a superyacht built for Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, could pass through the city’s river, saying that a decision had not yet been made.

This week, city officials had told the news media that Rotterdam had agreed to briefly dismantle the middle section of the 95-year-old bridge for the yacht’s passage this summer.

But on Thursday evening, officials said in another statement that the city had not yet approved the plan, though it had received a request from the shipbuilder to temporarily lift the middle part of bridge.

The city’s statement said the full cost of the dismantling, if approved, would be covered by the shipbuilder. The bridge, known locally as “De Hef,” would be restored immediately afterward.

A city spokeswoman had said that she did not have an estimate of how much the deconstruction would cost. The city statement said that officials would assess the environmental and economic effects of the plans.

A representative for Amazon did not respond to requests for comment about the cost or the yacht’s destination. A spokeswoman for Oceanco, the Dutch custom yacht company that is building the boat, said in an email that she could not comment on projects under construction or clients because of confidentiality reasons.

The city of Rotterdam’s decision to remove part of the bridge was reported on Wednesday by a regional Dutch public broadcaster, Rijnmond . Boat International, which publishes articles about the superyacht industry, reported that the 417-foot sailboat is set to become the largest sailing yacht in the world when it is finished later this year, surpassing the Sea Cloud , a 360-foot sailboat built in 1931 and owned by the Yacht Portfolio, an investment company based in Malta.

The superyacht Mr. Bezos commissioned is likely to cost more than $500 million to build, Bloomberg reported . Mr. Bezos is the world’s second-richest person , after Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk.

The bridge, which has a boat clearance of 130 feet, is not currently in use. A Rotterdam tour guide, Eddy le Couvreur, said that the bridge, designed by the Dutch architect Pieter Joosting and a fixture in the Rotterdam skyline, was once used for railway traffic. A vertical lift bridge, it was the first of its kind in the Netherlands, and was copied from similar bridges in the United States. The modern industrial aesthetics of the bridge inspired a short film in 1928, he said.

Until now, tall ships passed under the bridge before assembling their masts and taller structures, he said.

Dennis Tak, a Labor Party city councilor for Rotterdam, said he was fine with the bridge being dismantled — since the city would not be paying for it — because of the jobs the process would create. “As a city, this is a great way to take some of his money,” Mr. Tak said.

The structure is more than a bridge to the people of Rotterdam, said Siebe Thissen, the author of the book “The Boy Who Jumped From the Bridge,” about a working-class man who jumped from the bridge in 1933. “It’s a monument,” he said. “It’s the identity of Rotterdam.”

When city officials tried to take the bridge down in the 1990s since it was no longer in use, there were major protests, he said, calling the bridge a reminder of “the old days” in Rotterdam.

“I think that’s why there is so much turmoil about Jeff Bezos and his boat,” he said, before referring to accusations against Amazon . “People say, ‘Why this guy?’ It’s a working-class town, and they all know that Jeff Bezos, of course, he exploits his workers, so people say, ‘Why should this guy be able to demolish the bridge for his boat?’”

As of Thursday, more than 600 Facebook users said they would attend an event, titled “Throwing eggs at superyacht Jeff Bezos,” where they plan to gather by the bridge to throw eggs at the boat. “Rotterdammers are proud of their city and don’t tear down iconic buildings just because you are super rich,” said Pablo Strörmann, the event organizer, who said he started the Facebook group “mostly” as a joke.

Mr. le Couvreur, who works for the company Tours by Locals, which connects tourists with local guides, said that Rotterdammers would likely enjoy the international attention that the spectacle had brought, he said. “On the other hand, it shows the unimaginable wealth that people like Bezos have created for themselves, that nothing can stand in the way for them living out their dreams and hobbies,” he said, adding that the outlook was “worlds apart from those who will be watching the ship pass through the city.”

Claire Moses contributed reporting.

Jenny Gross is a general assignment reporter. Before joining The Times, she covered British politics for the The Wall Street Journal. More about Jenny Gross

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Jeff Bezos gets a historic Dutch bridge dismantled so his $500 million yacht can pass

The rich are different from you and me, as the writer Scott Fitzgerald once said. More proof (if any is needed) is a deal struck between Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos and officials in the Dutch city of Rotterdam to dismantle a historical landmark, so he can move his brand-new superyacht from the shipyard to the open sea.

In negotiations revealed this week, Rotterdam officials agreed to take apart (and later reassemble) the steel Koningshaven bridge that spans Europe’s busiest cargo port, and which has stood in place since 1927. That is in order for Bezos’s new 412-foot vessel—one of the biggest private yachts on the planet —to leave its construction site and set sail. The bridge is one of Rotterdam’s best-known local landmarks, called a “must-see” by one tourist on Tripadvisor.

It is a “must-remove” for Bezos, however. His vessel—estimated to cost about $500 million to build— includes three 229-foot masts , too tall to sail under the bridge, which has the height of a 13-story building and a clearance of 131 feet.

That meant the bridge, which locals affectionately call “De Hef,” or “the lever,” has to be temporarily taken apart sometime this summer and then reconstructed once Bezos’s yacht leaves town.

“On the one hand, economic importance, employment, due to the construction of this ship. On the other hand, our concern for De Hef,” Rotterdam spokeswoman Frances van Heijst told the Washington Post (which is owned by Bezos), to explain the thinking behind the decision. “We attach great importance to preserving employment,” she said, adding that the city would not cover the costs of removing and reassembling the bridge.

That was hardly reassuring to some politicians.

“This man has earned his money by structurally cutting staff, evading taxes, avoiding regulations, and now we have to tear down our beautiful national monument?” Stephan Leewis, a member of the Rotterdam council from the environmental party GroenLinks , told the local broadcaster Rijnmond, which broke the news on Wednesday. “That is really a bridge too far,” he said.

The deal also sparked anger among preservationists. “Jobs are important,” Ton Wesselink of Rotterdam’s historical society Historisch Genootschap Roterodamum told Rijnmond . “But there are limits with what you can and should do with our industrial heritage.”

Yet there are few limits, it seems, to what can be negotiated by a tech titan like Bezos, whose wealth grew by $5 billion last year to $195 billion, making him the world’s second richest individual after Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Last September, Bezos committed $1 billion to climate projects—including those focused on restoring the oceans.

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Jeff bezos gets a historic dutch bridge dismantled so his $500 million yacht can pass.

The rich are different from you and me, as the writer Scott Fitzgerald once said. More proof (if any is needed) is a deal struck between Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos and officials in the Dutch city of Rotterdam to dismantle a historical landmark, so he can move his brand-new superyacht from the shipyard to the open sea.

In negotiations revealed this week, Rotterdam officials agreed to take apart (and later reassemble) the steel Koningshaven bridge that spans Europe’s busiest cargo port, and which has stood in place since 1927. That is in order for Bezos’s new 412-foot vessel—one of the biggest private yachts on the planet —to leave its construction site and set sail. The bridge is one of Rotterdam's best-known local landmarks, called a “must-see” by one tourist on Tripadvisor.

It is a “must-remove” for Bezos, however. His vessel—estimated to cost about $500 million to build— includes three 229-foot masts , too tall to sail under the bridge, which has the height of a 13-story building and a clearance of 131 feet.

That meant the bridge, which locals affectionately call “De Hef,” or “the lever,” has to be temporarily taken apart sometime this summer and then reconstructed once Bezos’s yacht leaves town.

“On the one hand, economic importance, employment, due to the construction of this ship. On the other hand, our concern for De Hef,” Rotterdam spokeswoman Frances van Heijst told the Washington Post (which is owned by Bezos), to explain the thinking behind the decision. “We attach great importance to preserving employment,” she said, adding that the city would not cover the costs of removing and reassembling the bridge.

That was hardly reassuring to some politicians.

"This man has earned his money by structurally cutting staff, evading taxes, avoiding regulations, and now we have to tear down our beautiful national monument?” Stephan Leewis, a member of the Rotterdam council from the environmental party GroenLinks , told the local broadcaster Rijnmond, which broke the news on Wednesday. “That is really a bridge too far,” he said.

The deal also sparked anger among preservationists. “Jobs are important,” Ton Wesselink of Rotterdam’s historical society Historisch Genootschap Roterodamum told Rijnmond . “But there are limits with what you can and should do with our industrial heritage.”

Yet there are few limits, it seems, to what can be negotiated by a tech titan like Bezos, whose wealth grew by $5 billion last year to $195 billion, making him the world’s second richest individual after Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Last September, Bezos committed $1 billion to climate projects—including those focused on restoring the oceans.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Watch CBS News

Mayor denies Dutch city will dismantle historic bridge for Jeff Bezos' yacht

By Megan Cerullo

February 4, 2022 / 2:05 PM EST / MoneyWatch

A Dutch city has not agreed to temporarily disassemble a bridge built in 1927 to make room for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ' mega-yacht, CBS MoneyWatch has learned.

A spokesperson for the mayor — and the city — on Friday told CBS MoneyWatch that Dutch press reports that Rotterdam would disassemble an historic bridge to make room for Bezos' boat were false, and that it has not received, or approved any such request. 

If Bezos or custom yacht-builder Oceanco asks for an accommodation, the city will consider it.

"The company that built the ship didn't yet ask for a permit so there is not an issue at this moment. When they ask for the permit, then we have to make a decision if we allow it or not, and how, and things like that," the spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch.

Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb also denied earlier press reports, telling Dutch paper Algemeen Dagblad that "No decision has been made yet," noting that neither Bezos nor his yacht's maker have applied for a permit to take down part of the bridge. 

The Amazon founder's $500 million boat, built by Netherlands-based Oceanco and scheduled to be completed soon, measures 417 feet long and must pass through Rotterdam, under its landmark bridge, to reach its owner, NL Times reported . The problem? The Koninginnebrug bridge, a steel bridge nicknamed De Hef, isn't tall enough to accommodate the ship's three masts, which exceed the 130 feet of clearance the bridge offers.   

Dutch press reports said that the city would remove the central section of the bridge to make way for the yacht, the largest ever built in the Netherlands. 

At this point in time, city officials in Rotterdam, who have been in contact with Oceanco regarding the construction of the superyacht, only know that "there is a big ship that has to go through the ocean some day," a spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch, adding that they anticipate receiving a request to make room for the boat to pass under the bridge. 

The spokesperson noted that the city has in the past had to deconstruct parts of the bridge to accommodate large vessels. 

"This is not the first time we have to do something about this bridge so that a big ship can go through. Once every few years a big ship has to go through to the other side," the spokesperson said. "So it's not unusual, in a way."

Rotterdam officials were said to have yielded to the billionaire, the world's  second-richest person , given the significance of the project to the local economy. Rotterdam council project leader Marcel Walravens called the construction of the superyacht "a very important project" economically, according to local broadcaster Rijnmond . Dismantling the bridge was the "only alternative," he said. 

Oceanco had agreed to pay for the cost of dismantling operation, Rotterdam spokesperson Frances Van Heijst told the NL Times. It's unclear if Bezos, who is worth roughly $176 billion , would pay for any of the disassembly cost.

The shipbuilder did not respond to a request for comment from CBS MoneyWatch. 

Aboutaleb, the mayor, said the controversial undertaking remains under consideration, but that Bezos still lacks the official approval to move forward. He also said Bezos' wealth and status will not influence his decision. 

"That has absolutely nothing do with this decision. It's about the facts. I want to know them first," Aboutaleb told the Dutch language newspaper.

"It's not an issue of what is going through the bridge," the city spokesperson reiterated. "It's not like if it's a ship for Mr. Bezos all of a sudden the rules are changing. But if there is a call for a permit, we will make a decision based on facts and not emotions. But we are not at that stage at this moment," the spokesperson said.

Some locals oppose altering the bridge on behalf of one of the richest people on the planet. Protesters have organized an event on Facebook at which they vowed to gather to throw eggs at Bezos' yacht when it passes under the bridge, scheduled for June. 

"Rotterdam was built from the rubble by the people of Rotterdam, and we don't just take that apart for the phallic symbol of a megalomaniac billionaire. Not without a fight!!" event organizers wrote on Facebook. 

• Netherlands

Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.

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Rotterdam to dismantle part of historic bridge so Jeff Bezos’s massive yacht can pass through

Rotterdam has agreed to temporarily dismantle part of its historic Koningshaven Bridge so that Jeff Bezos’s 417-foot-long , three-mast yacht can pass through the waterway sometime this summer, according to a spokeswoman for the city.

The Dutch company Oceano has been building the massive vessel for an estimated $500 million in the nearby city of Alblasserdam. Once completed this year, the ship, known as Y721, will be the world’s largest sailing yacht, according to Boat International .

But to reach the open seas it must first pass through Rotterdam — considered the maritime capital of Europe — and the city’s historic steel bridge, locally known as De Hef, which has a clearance of just over 131 feet.

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Originally built in 1927, De Hef was a railway bridge and the first of its kind in Western Europe, with a central span that could be lifted to allow ship traffic to pass underneath. It was decommissioned in 1994 after being replaced by a tunnel, but later declared a national monument. The bridge underwent a major restoration from 2014 to 2017, after which the city said it would not be dismantled again, according to the Dutch broadcaster Rijnmond , which first reported on the yacht agreement.

Although the exact plans, timetable and costs have not been set, Oceano and Bezos will pay to dismantle the bridge, Rijnmond reported.

Frances van Heijst, the Rotterdam municipality spokeswoman, confirmed by phone that the city would not be footing the bill. She said the shipbuilder bears the cost of hiring a company to carry out the bridge’s deconstruction and reassembly, but that she could not provide an estimate or breakdown of the cost as “a lot of details need to be worked out.”

Representatives for Bezos and Oceano did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bezos, estimated to be one of the world’s richest people, owns The Washington Post. Last year, he stepped down as chief executive of Amazon, the online retail giant he founded.

Quiet and secretive Blue Origin hopes to start new chapter with Jeff Bezos’s space flight

Van Heijst said by email that the city agreed to remove the middle part of the bridge after receiving the request and weighing the economic costs and benefits.

“On the one hand, [there is] the economic importance / employment due to the construction of this ship,” she said. “On the other hand, our concern for De Hef.”

Were permission to dismantle the bridge not provided, Oceano would likely have to sail a half-finished yacht under De Hef and then complete construction elsewhere.

“From an economic perspective, we attach great importance to preserving employment,” van Heijst said.

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Marcel Walravens, a municipality official working on De Hef related issues, told Rijnmond that he considered the removal of the middle part “maintenance” as afterward the bridge would be restored to its original form.

Others are more concerned.

“Jobs are important, but there are limits with what you can and should do with our industrial heritage,” Ton Wesselink, the head of a local history society, Historisch Genootschap Roterodamum, told the website Dutch News .

Historic Dutch bridge to make way for superyacht reportedly built for Jeff Bezos

The city of Rotterdam has agreed to remove a section of historic bridge in the Netherlands to make way for a superyacht, reportedly built for Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.

A spokesperson for the city of Rotterdam said the mid-section of the century-old "Koningshavenbrug," know by locals as "De Hef," will be removed this summer to make way for a yacht with 40-metre masts, but declined to comment on who owns the ship.

Rotterdam broadcaster Rijnmond reported that the yacht is owned by Jeff Bezos. Officials at yacht builder Oceanco did not respond to requests for comment. Representatives for Jeff Bezos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The vessel, known as Y721 during construction, will measure 127 metres, making it the largest sailing yacht in the world when it launches in 2022, according to figures published by Boat International.

To get from Oceanco's inland dock in Alblasserdam to the North Sea, the yacht must pass the old bridge, the first landmark to be restored in post-war Rotterdam.

The city said it carefully considered its duty to care for the bridge and the economic interests created by the project before "ultimately deciding to vote in favor of this request."

Undisclosed costs for the bridge operation will be covered by the ship builder, the city said.

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Jeff Bezos to dismantle historic Dutch bridge for $450 million yacht

The koningshaven bridge was built in 1878 and repaired after bombing in world war ii.

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Jeff Bezos will pay for Rotterdam to partially dismantle a nearly 145-year-old bridge so he can sail his $485 million super yacht out after finishing construction on the vessel. 

The Oceanco shipyard in Alblasserdam near Rotterdam has nearly completed the construction of Y721 , the former Amazon CEO’s yacht, but the vessel is too big to sail out with the bridge as it is. The builders asked the local council to remove the bridge’s central section so the yacht can pass. 

Jeff Bezos' superyacht in the Oceanco shipyard. The $485 million vessel will have a height over 130 feet.  (Courtesy Tom van Oossanen/IG: @tomvanoossanen)

"It's the only route to the sea," a spokesman for the mayor of Rotterdam told AFP , adding that billionaire Bezos, 57, would pay for the operation. The super yacht, which will be the largest boat built in Oceanco and one of the largest ever built, requires a 130-foot clearance, at least, to pass through. 

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The Koningshaven Bridge, known to locals as De Hef, dates from 1878 but was rebuilt after the Nazis bombed it in 1940 during World War II. The local council replaced the original swing bridge design after several traffic jams and collisions, changing it to a lifting bridge. 

The local council completed a major repair on the bridge in 2017 and promised not to dismantle the bridge again. 

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The shipbuilders dismissed suggestions that they sail a partially-finished vessel down the river and finish it elsewhere. Marcel Walravens, who managed the renovation, said it would prove impractical. 

"If you carry out a big job somewhere, you want all your tools in that place," Walravens told Rijnmond . "Otherwise you have to go back and forth constantly."

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Walravens noted that the municipality considers the project "very important." 

"Rotterdam has also been declared the maritime capital of Europe," he explained. "Shipbuilding and activity within that sector are therefore an important pillar for the municipality."

The Dutch company building Jeff Bezos' megayacht scrapped its request to take apart a historic bridge following public outcry and threats to egg the ship

• The shipbuilder behind Jeff Bezos' megayacht has scrapped plans to dismantle a historic bridge.
• Bezos' yacht was too tall to pass underneath the bridge, but public outcry halted the plans. 
• The company worried locals would vandalize the ship as it passed by, Dutch newspaper Trouw reported.

The Dutch shipbuilder constructing Jeff Bezos' megayacht scrapped its request that a historic bridge be dismantled to accommodate the Amazon founder's vessel. 

Oceanco, a Netherlands-based custom yacht builder, informed the city of Rotterdam that it would no longer be requesting a permit to remove the center portion of the Koningshaven Bridge, known locally as De Hef, to allow Bezos' yacht to reach the North Sea. That is according to a letter written by a city official and translated from Dutch to English using Google Translate. 

While the city didn't rule out the possibility of a future permit to dismantle the bridge, Oceanco isn't going forward with the plan for the time being, the letter says.

It seems that Oceanco may have abandoned its plans to take apart the bridge following public outcry earlier this year. Dutch newspaper Trouw obtained documents from the city through a freedom of information request that showed the shipbuilder was taken aback by the uproar and had opted to drop its plans. 

"As a result of the reports, shipyard employees feel threatened and the company fears vandalism," Trouw reported, according to a translation. 

It's unclear how the yacht will now be transported if it doesn't fit under the bridge, though Trouw reports that Oceanco could choose to finish it at a shipyard closer to the sea.

The company did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. 

Related stories

A $500 million megayacht

Bezos' yacht saga began back in February, when  Dutch broadcaster Rijnmond reported that the 417-foot vessel would need to pass through Rotterdam — and underneath De Hef — on its way out to sea.

But Bezos' ship appears to be sail-assisted, which means it has three large masts, masts that are too tall to pass underneath the bridge despite its clearance of over 131 feet. The shipbuilder's solution was to temporarily remove the center portion of the bridge, then replace it once the vessel passed through. 

Frances van Heijst, a spokesperson for the municipality of Rotterdam, confirmed to Insider at the time that the city is able to grant permission to the maritime sector to take a ship to sea. But van Heijst told the Washington Post that the city would not pay to dismantle the bridge and reassemble it — that cost would fall to Oceanco.

Objections to the plan were swift. Locals began organizing an event on Facebook to throw rotten eggs at the yacht when it passed by, describing Bezos as a "megalomaniac billionaire." 

The existence of Bezos' megayacht was  first reported in Brad Stone's book , "Amazon Unbound," in May 2021. Photos and videos published last October showed the yacht in a shipyard in Zwijndrecht, Netherlands — though the vessel was clearly unfinished, it appeared to have a black hull and multiple, massive decks.

Currently known only as Y721, the yacht is predicted to cost $500 million and is expected to be "one of the finest sailing yachts in existence," Stone reported.

Watch: Jeff Bezos on regulating giant tech companies: 'I expect us to be scrutinized'

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Rotterdam won’t dismantle bridge for jeff bezos’ super-yacht.

The shipyard that’s building Jeff Bezos’ massive 417-foot-high super-yacht reportedly has scrapped plans to ask the Dutch city of Rotterdam to dismantle a landmark bridge to make way for the Amazon founder’s seaborne plaything.

Oceanco, the company that was commissioned to build Bezos’ $500 million vessel, has abandoned a plan to have Rotterdam temporarily take apart Koningshavenbrug, known locally as “De Hef,” according to the Dutch language news site Trouw.

It is unclear what Oceanco plans to do now that it has abandoned the option of pursuing the bridge’s dismantling.

The article, which cited a backlash from local residents for the about-face, was translated by the site DutchNews.nl. The site obtained documents through the country’s freedom of information laws showing that Oceanco was so taken aback by the public backlash to the original plan that it decided not to go through with it.

The company had said that it needed to have the bridge taken apart in order to allow the super-yacht to sail into the North Sea.

Rotterdammers were so up in arms over the plan that they organized Facebook groups to mount protests. Some have even threatened to pelt Bezos’ super-yacht, which is said to be among the largest vessels in the world, with rotten eggs .

The 150-year-old steel structure, which has a 130-foot clearance and which spans the Meuse River, was refurbished in 2017 after it was bombed during the Second World War. The bridge has gained landmark status and was converted into a national monument.

Rotterdammers noted that city officials pledged it would not dismantle the bridge after the recent renovations from five years ago.

The city of Rotterdam reportedly opposed making the information obtained by Trouw public due to the threats it is said to have received from opponents of the plan.

Bezos’ Y721 super-yacht will be one of the biggest sailing vessels ever made in the Netherlands, which is a hub for boat construction for the very wealthy,  according to Bloomberg .

The yacht’s towering height has presented other problems for the world’s  second-richest man . The boat’s tall masts would present a hazard to helicopters, so the former Amazon CEO commissioned a support yacht with a helipad to follow in its wake, the outlet said.

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Jeff Bezos superyacht will cause historic Rotterdam bridge

There are plans to take apart, and then reassemble, a historic bridge in Rotterdam to allow a superyacht built for billionaire Jeff Bezos to leave a shipyard.

Axar.az reports that the luxury yacht, linked to the world's richest man, is being built by Dutch firm Oceanco. The vessel is reported to be 127m long and too tall to fit through the Koningshaven Bridge.

Rotterdam's mayor has denied any decision has been made to dismantle the bridge, saying he has not received a request.

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News archive, old bridge to be dismantled in the netherlands because of jeff bezos' yacht.

The authorities of Rotterdam decided to partially dismantle the Koningshaven Bridge, built in 1878, so that the new yacht of billionaire Jeff Bezos could pass along the river. The owner of Amazon ordered a superyacht from one of the Dutch shipyards. The vessel worth 485 million US dollars is already ready. However, due to the fact that when designing the yacht, the parameters of the bridge were not taken into account, the ship turned out to be higher than Koningshaven and will not be able to pass under it. After considering all possible options, it was decided to partially dismantle the old building.

Jeff Bezos assured that he would reimburse the authorities of Rotterdam for the costs of these works, reports kp.ru.

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