What Jeff Bezos's Super Yacht, Historic Architecture, and Rotten Eggs Have in Common

Celebrity LifestyleWhat Jeff Bezos's Super Yacht, Historic Architecture, and Rotten Eggs Have in CommonThey’ll all come together in Europe this June

By Jessica Cherner

February 9, 2022

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Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

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Jeff Bezos’s new super yacht is back in the headlines for a potentially smelly reason that has more to do with rotten eggs than it does naval design. Most people interpret the phrase, “the only way out is always through,” figuratively, but Jeff Bezos isn’t a regular person. After all, while some people took a drive to a nearby lake or boarded a plane to one of the coasts for their first pandemic trip, Bezos strapped himself into his rocket ship and journeyed to outer space. So it should come as no surprise that the billionaire behind Amazon is planning on doing something else equally absurd: He wants the Rotterdam government to temporarily dismantle a historic bridge so that he can pass through in his $500 million, three-mast, 417-foot yacht. It’s unclear whether or not the government will comply, but if it does, the locals plan on welcoming him to their city with eggs. That’s right: Rotterdam residents will egg the world’s second-wealthiest individual for all to see.

The Koningshavenbrug De Hef in Rotterdam may be temporarily dismantled to make way for Jeff Bezos’s new yacht.

Photo: SOPA Images/Getty Images

The bridge in question is Koningshaven Bridge, known locally as “De Hef,” and it’s been standing—at 130 feet—since 1927. Bezos wants to take it apart so that he can bring his new sailboat, with towering masts, home. Jeff Bezos’s new yacht, which he is having custom-made at the Oceanco shipyard in the Netherlands, will be the world’s largest sailing yacht. It’s supposed to be ready for him to pick up and sail away in June of 2022, but he’s making plans to get it out onto the sea now because it’s not a typical boat that can traverse European rivers. Though Bezos surely has no issue inconveniencing locals or dismantling history, he is in a bit of a pickle because the only way to get the yacht from the shipyard to the open water is through De Hef.

Luckily for anyone with a sense of humor who wouldn’t mind watching the billionaire take an egg to the face, Bezos will probably win this fight. Plus, municipal project leader Marcel Walravens announced that the complicated construction project would move forward for logistical and economic reasons. What the economic reasons he’s referring to are unknown, but with Jeff Bezos footing the bill, they will likely be quite compelling.

Another one of Bezos’s yachts is called “Flying Fox,” and it measures 446-feet-long.

Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

None of that has been confirmed yet, though, which makes deciding whether or not to take the bridge apart a bit tricky—especially because dismantling it may cause permanent damage to the structure.

Whether or not the bridge suffers long-term damage, locals vow to show up to the bridge with cartons of rotten eggs. The only issue is: According to Curbed, the egg would have to fly more than 200 feet to hit the yacht’s hull, which isn’t impossible, but it’s not easy. Hopefully, former and current athletes with impressive throwing abilities will turn up armed with eggs.

De Hef isn’t currently in use because it was replaced by a tunnel and eventually decommissioned in 1994. That doesn’t mean it’s not an architectural treasure worthy of being left alone for the rest of time. Perhaps the only silver lining to its temporary deconstruction is the photos of Jeff Bezos’s new yacht covered in the putrid stench of rotten eggs courtesy of Rotterdam locals. Unfortunately, for now, the small European city won’t know the fate of their beloved bridge for another few months, but until then, they’re making extra stops to the store for eggs. 

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