The massive ship will sail through the ancient city to a mixed audience. Photo / YouTube
The massive ship will sail through the ancient city to a mixed audience. Photo / YouTube
A group of disgruntled Rotterdam residents have banded together to tell Jeff Bezos where to stick it, as the Amazon billionaire's yacht prepares to sail into the ancient European city.
The Amazon founder's 127m long, three-masted ship has cost roughly US$500 million ($750m) and is under construction in the Netherlands.
Unfortunately for locals, the gigantic vessel will be too tall to pass under Rotterdam's landmark Koningshaven Bridge, which has a 39m clearance.
As a workaround, the mega-billionaire and the boatmaker Oceano reportedly asked Rotterdam officials to temporarily dismantle the bridge, and pledged to reimburse the city for expenses.
Taking apart and reassembling the middle section of the bridge known locally as "De Hef" was expected to take more than two weeks.
As is the custom for modern day working-class uprisings, a Facebook event attempting to scramble the high-status tourist's visit immediately sprung up overnight.
Early morning sunshine on the River Maas and De Hef railway bridge, Koningshaven, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Photo / Getty Images
"Throwing eggs at Jeff Bezos' superyacht" has already attracted 4000 people, with host Pablo Strormann encouraging locals to get around the community event in protest of De Hef's desecration.
"Call to all Rotterdammers, take a box of (rotten) eggs with you and let's throw it en masse to Jeff's superyacht when it sails through the Hef in Rotterdam," the Facebook event description (translated from Dutch) reads.
"Rotterdam was built out of the rubble by the people of Rotterdam, and we don't just take that apart for the phallus symbol of a megalomaniac billionaire. Not without a fight!"
The event host also posted a link to an instructional DIY egg-launcher video to further round out the participants' billionaire-busting arsenal.
However, Rotterdam officials have touted Bezos' pet project as a serious revenue generator for the city.
"From an economic perspective and maintaining employment, the municipality considers this a very important project," municipal project leader Marcel Walravens said.
"In addition, Rotterdam has also been declared the maritime capital of Europe. Shipbuilding and activity within that sector are therefore an important pillar of the municipality."
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Photo / Getty Images
Word of the planned deconstruction of the 1878 steel structure took a toll on preservation officials, who said the city pledged not to take apart De Hef again following a 2017 restoration.
"Employment is important, but there are limits to what you can and may do to our heritage," Ton Wesselink of the Rotterdam Historical Society said.
Another local leader said bowing to Bezos was a "bridge too far", as he issued a stern rebuke to some of Amazon's reported business practices.
"This man has earned his money by structurally cutting staff, evading taxes, avoiding regulations and now we have to tear down our beautiful national monument?" Rotterdam politician Stephan Leewis wrote on Twitter.
The bridge was one of the first Rotterdam landmarks to be restored after the city was bombed in World War II.
It became obsolete after a tunnel was built for train traffic in 1993, but residents baulked at demolishing the span, and it was converted into a national monument.
Bezos' Y721 superyacht will be one of the biggest sailing vessels made in the Netherlands, which is a hub for boat construction for the very wealthy, according to Bloomberg.
