A historic steel bridge in the Netherlands will be partially dismantled this summer so Jeff Bezos’ yacht can pass through, authorities in Rotterdam confirmed Thursday.
Koningshaven Bridge, a 95-year-old Dutch national monument, is too short for the 130-foot tall, 417-foot long superyacht known as “Y721,” which is being built upstream by Oceanco, a custom yacht builder.
A spokesman for the Rotterdam mayor told the BBC that the bridge would have to be taken apart and rebuilt so the boat could pass through, noting “it’s the only route to the sea.”
Bezos will pay for the bridge’s deconstruction and reassembly. Dennis Tak, a Labor Party city councilor for Rotterdam, told The New York Times he supported the move because it would create jobs locally.
Rotterdam citizens, however, seem less than happy about the development. A Facebook event inviting people to hurl rotten eggs at the ship as it sails through this summer boasts 2,600 interested attendees, with 660 confirmed.
According to Boat International, Y721 will be the world’s largest sailing yacht when it’s delivered later this year. A Bloomberg report linking the vessel to Bezos found the yacht, which comes with its own secondary yacht, likely cost more than $500 million to build.
From March 2020 to November 2021, the 10 richest people in the world more than doubled their wealth, from a collective $700 billion to $1.5 trillion, an Oxfam report found.
Bezos — who is worth more than $150 billion — didn’t pay a penny in federal income tax in 2007, 2011 or 2018, a ProPublica report last year found. He paid a true tax rate of less than 1% between 2014 and 2018.