Rotterdam bridge taken apart to let through Jeff Bezos pleasure yacht | Hacker News Reader

Rotterdam bridge taken apart to let through Jeff Bezos pleasure yacht

nltimes.nl

20 pointssAbakumoff10 comments

Jeff Bezos commissioned Oceano in Alblasserdam to build him a gigantic pleasure yacht with masts exceeding the bridge's 40 meters clearance.

It is impractical to partially finish the ship, move it through the bridge, and then finish it somewhere else.

So the city of Rotterdam agreed to temporarily dismantle the bridge, with Bezos reimbursing the costs.

In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a Stately Pleasure Dome Decree.

At first I thought Bezos was taking his yacht into Rotterdam but it makes a lot more sense.

If the municipality doesn’t want the yacht builder to dismantle the bridge they should put restrictions on how large they can be. I’m betting it’s much better for the city to be building, presumably, some of the best yachts in the world. They should come to some kind of agreement that’s ok for everyone city, ship builder, and historical society.

Municipality fails to sabotage local shipbuilding industry in order to spite foreign billionaire?

Seems excessive, but I imagine that the shipbuilding company (Oceano) is beneficial to the local economy. It doesn't strike me as odd that the city would honor their request.

Doesn't seem excessive or unusual, stuff like this is normal anywhere where companies build big things.

maybe not, but it seems really odd that an established ship-building company would build something that can't make it down-river like that

It would only be odd if this arrangement was somehow unusual, but it isn't. The bridge was designed to do this.

It would've been unusual for local authorities to not work with the shipbuilder.

Unless they had already talked to the city to make sure the bridge could be moved before building the yacht. Do you really think they just built the fucking thing and crossed their fingers that the city would allow the bridge move?

Thousands of ship-building jobs vs a lone bridge.

Ergo: Raise the bridge.

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