Historic Dutch Bridge To Be Dismantled So Jeff Bezos' Superyacht Can Pass Through (iflscience.com) 258
schwit1 shares a report from IFLScience: A historic bridge in Rotterdam, Netherlands, is to be dismantled so that Jeff Bezos' superyacht can pass through. The Koningshaven Bridge, nicknamed "De Hef" by locals, has been a landmark in Rotterdam since 1878. Originally a swing bridge, it was converted into a lifting bridge after several ships got stuck in the narrow passage, and a collision involving the German ship Kandelfels in 1918. Having been damaged in the bombing of Rotterdam, it was one of the first monuments to be restored in the city shortly afterward. Now, it is to be dismantled to let the Amazon founder's 127-meter (417-foot) long luxury sailing yacht -- the Y721 -- to reach the ocean. The yacht will be the largest vessel of its kind in the world, and will be unable to make it under De Hef when it is completed by the ship-making firm Oceanco. Despite promises that the bridge would not be dismantled again following renovations in 2014-2017, the middle section of the bridge will be temporarily removed to let the billionaire's boat out. A spokesperson for the mayor's office said "It's the only route to the sea." They noted that the yacht created jobs during its construction and that the bridge would be restored (once again) after Bezos' vessel passes.
Who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)
As long as he’s paying for it.
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Impeccable irony. Well done Sir.
Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Informative)
They're not really "dismantling" it either in the menacing, destructive sense the word is being used to imply either. They're gonna strap some heavy cranes to the middle part, unbolt it, sail the yacht through, then lower it and bolt it back on.
Everyone - the city, the shipyard, and Bezos - knew this would have to be done if Oceanco built his yacht. Everyone agreed, in advance, that Bezos would pay for the bridge to temporarily be a drawbridge.
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Did he already pay? What are they going to do if he doesn't?
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Basically, it's not Jeff Bezos' yacht until _after_ passing the bridge.
Re: Who cares? (Score:3)
I actually prefer the mental image of it being his yacht the moment it leaves dock but he's too cheap to pay for the bridge, so he can only sail it around their bay/lake.
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Everyone agreed, in advance, that Bezos would pay for the bridge to temporarily be a drawbridge.
Perhaps because I live in a desert where these giant bridges are quite alien, but since I'm sure this won't be the last giant ship to have to pass under this bridge, why didn't they make it a PERMANENT draw bridge?
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Because sentimental fools are attached to tradition and conservationism, and wish for things to remain the same for no other reason than to keep them the same.
The thing with “conservativism”, is that it is often called “hæritage” when it would pertain a foreign culture rather than one's own. However to me it is not a foreign culture since I live close to Rotterdam, so it's simply “conservativism”.
What I find interesting is that “progressives” of one cultu
Re: Who cares? (Score:2)
Because its extremely high. No normal ship that can access the water beyond, needs it to be a drawbridge. The exception is of course a tall sailing ship with very high masts. Yeah, why didn't nobody think of that one, huh? :)
Nobody cares. The bridge can be unbolted in a week, removed for a day, then it's another week of putting it back. It doesn't damage anything, it's just a cost.
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Landlubber here, but I wonder why the builders can't just bolt on the 3 masts AFTER passing the dinghy under the bridge. Used to be that masts were replaceable because they sometimes needed to be. But, I don't know the first thing about boats, except that its supposed to be drier inside them than outside.
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They could. But it's cheaper to temporarily modify the bridge, so that is what they will do.
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A mobile structure like that is often far, far more expensive than a permanent installation.
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Re: London Calling (Score:5, Informative)
Re: London Calling (Score:2)
You mean the new london bridge.
Not to be confused with the new new london bridge, which is the one in London today.
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Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)
pay for the bridge to temporarily be a drawbridge.
It already is a drawbridge. Not the kind where the roadway swings vertical (which would let pass boats of any height), but one where the roadway is lifted up by both ends, staying horizontal (which still blocks boats that are really tall, even in its open position).
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It's predictable some poopstirrers would pretend as such through distorted descriptions.
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Who cares?
People who are blocked in traffic.
Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Funny)
Who cares?
People who are blocked in traffic.
They could use the time buying stuff from Amazon.
Re: Who cares? (Score:2)
How is this any different than when companies move whole houses through city streets? Heck, they once drove the Space Shuttle through LA. The residents seem to be well aware of the problems with this bridge and can avoid the area for a while.
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Who cares?
People who are blocked in traffic.
What I read in articles about this is that this was a railway bridge - and "bridge was closed to rail traffic in 1993"
So I would expect there's no impact to traffic other than people coming to see the big cranes, big ship passing through, etc.
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TFA could have included a picture of the bridge [wikipedia.org] instead of smirking Bezos.
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One could argue that with the way Amazon & big corporations, and Bezos & filthy rich billionaires are evading all their taxes, it is the taxpayers who are paying for it.
Well, I'm not a big fan of Bezos, but I can't imagine he has been personally involved in the details around how some yacht he is buying will get to sea - so can't really work up a rage around this one. And if the Dutch locals are fine with the trade-off "we get money & jobs plus get even more jobs rebuilding the bridge", then why
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As long as he’s paying for it.
He gets free shipping.
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Re: Who cares? (Score:2)
He cancelled his prime when he found out they're raising the price again.
Ransom it! He can afford to pay. (Score:2)
They missed a terrific opportunity. They should have demanded ransom to release the yacht. Ten per cent or so sounds fair: that'll be $50 million, please, Mr Bezos. And thank you for contributing so generously to the upkeep of our bridge and our ancient city!
"Take what you can; give nothing back".
Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)
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That's old for the US!
Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Interesting)
That's old for the US!
Americans think 100 years is a long time; Europeans think 100 miles is a long way.
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If you read more of it, you'd know that the pier approaches on both sides date to 1878 but they rebuilt the inside part since then. But yeah, the 1878 part is probably not being touched.
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The owner asked what they were doing, and the guest explained that it was Canada's 125th birthday. The owner of the inn said the roof was 125 years old, and the inn itself was 400 years old.
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The bridge has no problems with sea traffic, it has problems with ships with excessively high masts that the shipbuilder decided to leave permanently affixed in order to save on costs. Build a stupid boat, pay a stupid price. What kind of a moron blames a bridge that was already there with dimensions readily available?
Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Who cares? (Score:2)
Re: Who cares? (Score:2)
No they won't. The bill will be paid by the building company, who presumably included it in the price tag of more than $400 million dollar.
be rich (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's a picture of the yacht [boatinternational.com]. It costs half a billion dollars. The sails are only on there for appearance (although they can be used).
He's not going to spend very much time on that yacht.
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It's a much better jobs program than pouring money into something that only increases mass production of something a tiny bit.
Re:be rich (Score:5, Insightful)
Rich buying toys is a way of redistributing money back into the economy
This is the broken window fallacy [wikipedia.org].
Make-work jobs are not good for the economy.
instead of just sitting in a bank account
Money does not "sit" in bank accounts. Banks loan the money to businesses and home buyers.
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I suspect that's actually the Black Pearl [wikipedia.org], from the same boatyard. Jeff Bezos' will be 20 meters longer (of course!)
Re: be rich (Score:2)
That looks pretty average as far as superyachts go
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Bezos comes across as an asshat. Like when he spoke at a climate conference about how seeing the Earth from space was a life changing event for him and make him realize how fragile the climate it. He doesn't give a shit about the climate, only telling people about how he was the second rich asshat to go into space and what a great accomplishment that was.
This yacht is just another sign that he has too much money to spend and it isn't trickling down like they said it would.
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This yacht is just another sign that he has too much money to spend and it isn't trickling down like they said it would.
That's not entirely correct. Him commissioning the buidling of his yacht employed people to design it, build it and all the other companies involved providing parts and services to the building process.
Once completed, he will be employing people to run and maintain the yacht, service it, repair it, etc.
And no, I am not defending him. All I'm saying is in a roundabout way, his money is tr
Re: be rich (Score:2)
Isn't that the Black Pearl? I doubt it will look exactly the same. Beautiful boat though, if I had that kind of money I'd live on that ship permanently. With my harem :)
In other news... (Score:3)
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More like it is a bbgun, it can be used to shoot something, but not really. Same with the sails in this dinghy, they can be used but they are not optimal nor provide much thrust, always faster to use the engines. Sailing boat usually has quite underpowered engines and are the primary as backup and manouvering in harbours.
Clickbait title? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Clickbait title? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is indeed fine clickbait.
I, and almost anyone else when reading that title, assumed it meant the bridge would be permanently removed merely to allow Jeff Bezos to visit.
Does the company own the bridge? (Score:2)
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Besides, I'm not a civil engineer, but don't bits of the Brooklin Bridge get replaced, every now and then, anyway?
You do have a point when you say that billionaires get away with outrageous things. But in this case my opinion is that the exchange is fair, *as long as* the bridge is rebuilt exactly as it was.
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Re:Clickbait title? (Score:4, Insightful)
This is a rail bridge that hasn't been in operation since 1993. It's purely there to look at.
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People move houses and large structures all the time, requiring such.
"Hey, here's an old bridge that's been rebuilt a bunch of times that you've never heard of! You are outraged class warfare anger you anger anger you!
Quit being such rubes
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Achieving millionaire status within one's life is achievable by everyone in developed countries.
You're so naive it's almost cute.
Very few people manage to go from rags to riches. Granted, Bezos is one of them. But most rich people were born into money. In today's society, the rich beget the rich and the poor beget the poor. The social elevator is almost completely broken, and the inequalities between the haves and the have-nots are growing wider everyday as a result.
But it doesn't matter how the rich got rich: the one thing you can count on is, once rich, they do their damnedest to stay rich by not pa
No license requested yet. (Score:5, Interesting)
According to this (Dutch) news article, the mayor of Rotterdam did not even see a request for a license.
https://nos.nl/artikel/2415636... [nos.nl]
The bridge is also a national monument...
A storm in a glass of water (Score:5, Informative)
Dutchie here.
This is so not an issue. This is about supporting the few shipbuilding companies that still exist here.
("A storn in a glass of of water" is a Dutch saying that describes overgrown hoopla about a minor issue.)
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("A storm in a glass of of water" is a Dutch saying that describes overgrown hoopla about a minor issue.)
"tempest in a teapot" is the equivalent american idiom.
I think "tempest in a teapot" is an old idiom though - not something you'd commonly hear, but not so rare that it's unheard of.
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This is all a teacup in a titty.
Re:A storm in a glass of water (Score:5, Informative)
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Exactly, some people make it an issue but in effect the bridge gets an inspection and maintenance. The silent majority just says 'thanks for doing business with us'.
Re:A storm in a glass of water (Score:5, Insightful)
To say nothing about a {obscene amount of money} injected into the local economy by {rich man needing a penis prosthetic} via {local shipbuilding company}.
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Why did the constructors take the job? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: Why did the constructors take the job? (Score:2)
The ability to deliver is certainly an issue for the constructor. But in this case it was discussed and agreed long ago that this issue would be handled in this particular way.
It's ugly anyway (Score:2)
I bet they only built it in front of a shipyard so someone rich would pay for it.
Well... There are other ways.... (Score:2)
For example, they can elevate the yacht instead with helium balloons...
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Well, but then you have to worry about the Blue Rogues and maybe even Arcwhales.
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Or strap some dicks^Wrockets to it!
Free bridge inspection and maintenance, be happy! (Score:3, Interesting)
Techies (Slashdot was once a tech site) should know bridges are not merely static but are complex systems requiring inspection, maintenance and repair. That means the removed components must be inspected before reinstallation to ensure fitness for purpose.
When someone else (Bezos) is paying for that the proper reaction would be rejoicing.
Re: Free bridge inspection and maintenance, be hap (Score:5, Insightful)
Much ado... (Score:3, Interesting)
...about nothing.
What I find interesting is that they can't land a heli on this sailship beacause of the masts. To solve that problem they're building a fuel burning support ship elsewhere in the Netherlands that can accommodate a heli, so Jeff can land there and shuttle over to his ecological virtue signaling sailing ship.
There's a lesson about the current state of the world in there somewhere.
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Old news... (Score:2)
These "news" sites should have verified this story with the city of Rotterdam. The mayor (Aboutaleb) said yesterday that nobody has even asked for permission to disassemble the bridge, and that he was unware of this supposed action, until the story started circulating.
oops! they did not that it was (Score:2)
Dreadful (Score:2)
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Re: Dreadful (Score:2)
I really hope he goes to Mars. And stays there.
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His bald ass is going to Mars.
Not with the lack of progress at Blue Origin. Over twenty years and all he has to show for it is a literal carnival ride. The BE-4 engine is years behind schedule. Even Branson has thrown something into orbit now.
The only way he's going to Mars is on a SpaceX ship.
Wait for it (Score:2)
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The empire that keeps the trade routes open flourishes. The one that turns to lording over its own people collapses, as a new center of empire forms on the outskirts.
Take a basic world history class
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A society that allows a single person to amassed huge amounts of wealth relative to others is bound to fail. All have failed in the past.
Fortunately, the USA has allowed more than person who amassed huge amounts of wealth!
(I presume you mean single, as in "one"... Bezos is divorced, after all.)
It will be dismantled a second time (Score:2)
When Elon builds even a bigger yacht. ;-)
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Outrage! (Score:2)
Never mind if the locals wanted it and it's all going to be put back together and be fine ...
Bezos!
Rich people (richer than me, anyway)!
Outrage!!!
the demonization of Bezos continues (Score:3)
Hitpiece, picked up and carried widely across international media, suggesting 'super rich asshole' greedily destroying historic landmark because he doesn't give a fuck about anyone else.
When in fact it takes about 30 seconds to realize:
- this is about the Dutch supporting their shipbuilding industry
- everyone knew this was coming, and Bezos paying for everything was already accounted in the contract*
- the deliberate use of the word 'dismantle' to imply much more than is happening.
*I haven't seen anyone mention what I suspect: that the costs supposedly going for the 'dismantlement' will in fact allow the municipality to take apart, INSPECT AND REPAIR, and then re-assemble this historic thing, something nearly any conservator would love to have a chance to do off their own usually paltry restoration budget. So ultimately the structure will likely benefit from the process.
Demolish the yacht (Score:3)
It can be put back together after transporting the bits under the bridge.
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Dat het middenstuk na passage van het miljoenenjacht weer wordt teruggezet, maakt volgens Strörmann niets uit. ,,Ze moeten van De Hef afblijven.’’ Ook het argument van de gemeente Rotterdam dat het zorgt voor werkgelegenheid in de scheepsbouw veegt hij met een lach van tafel. ,,Als er straks wat eierverkopers bij De Hef staan, is dat ook goed voor de economie.’’
Why would it not matter that is returned to it's original state? That seems to be quite important. — Sentimental outrage, no doubt fueled by that the client is a rich business mogul.
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You are right, it does matter. It's just a temporary deconstruction.
The issue is that it happened before and the local government promised it would not happen again. So, people are pissed off about a broken promise.
But in hindsight, it was a bit of a silly thing to promise imo, given that it's the only way out to the sea for the shipyard so unless they limit the size of the boats they construct, this is gonna happen again and again.
It is very much an emotional response. But to be honest, I sympathize, Jeff
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This bridge simply seems as an ill-wrought construction at the only exit of a shipyard. It is kept for no other reason than tradition, it seems.
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