Need proof Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has a disconcertingly giant fortune? Just ask Rotterdam. Rijnmond and The Washington Post have realized the Dutch metropolis has agreed to briefly dismantle a part of the historic Koningshaven Bridge (typically referred to as De Hef) to let his upcoming superyacht, Y721, move by means of this summer time. City spokeswoman Frances van Heijst did not but have a value estimate, however burdened that shipbuilder Oceanco would cowl the prices fairly than town.

As you may think, Y721’s design is… extreme. With a 417-foot size, three masts and several other decks, the vessel is poised to be the world’s largest crusing yacht. It’s presently below development in Alblasserdam and is believed to value about $500 million. If Rotterdam hadn’t granted permission to dismantle a part of the bridge, Oceanco would possible have wanted to sail the partly constructed yacht below the bridge and end development at one other dock.

The metropolis can be catching some flak over the choice. Koningshaven, inbuilt 1927, was declared a nationwide monument after it was decommissioned in 1994 on account of its significance as the primary in Western Europe with a central part that raises to permit taller ships beneath. The metropolis completed a three-year restoration of the bridge in 2017, and vowed to by no means dismantle the bridge once more — the Bezos deal breaks that promise in spectacular vogue.

Not that Bezos will essentially be fazed. Forbes estimates Bezos’ web price at $166.6 billion as of this writing. He may pay for the Netherlands’ newest protection budget ($14.3 billion) ten occasions over and nonetheless afford the yacht. To him, dismantling the bridge is successfully a minor inconvenience the place it it is an enormous affair for just about everybody else.