As if his normal acts of cartoonish supervillainy weren’t enough, Amazon founder and professional Lex Luthor impersonator Jeff Bezos may see a historic bridge dismantled to make way for his new super-yacht.
The bridge in question – Koningshaven Bridge, affectionately called “De Hef”, in the Dutch city of Rotterdam – is an old railway bridge with a midsection that can be raised to allow ship traffic, and a national monument for the Netherlands.
Yet its maximum 130-foot clearance is not high enough for the three masts on Bezos’ massive new 415-foot-long vessel, which is set to be the world’s largest sailing yacht, and so Rotterdam looks likely to grant permission for the midsection of De Hef to be taken apart so the boat can leave the shipyard where it is being built and head out to sea.
While the builders have promised to put the bridge back together, the decision has been met with howls of protest by locals, who point to a 2017 promise by the city that the bridge would never again be dismantled.
Fortunately, justice may be on the way in the form of thousands of people who have signed up for a joke event on Facebook, “Throwing eggs at superyacht Jeff Bezos”, which calls on Rotterdammers to bring a box of rotten eggs to pelt the maritime monstrosity as it passes.
On an unrelated topic, does anyone know the price of a plane ticket to Rotterdam?
