Woodrow Wilson Bridge opening Saturday morning for luxury yacht

[mahatmakanejeeves]

News
Woodrow Wilson Bridge opening Saturday morning for luxury yacht

By Vernon Miles
Published February 7, 2025 at 3:55PM


The Woodrow Wilson Bridge at sunset (Staff photo by Jay Westcott)
The Woodrow Wilson Bridge will be opening tomorrow (Saturday) to let a superyacht pass.

The bridge is scheduled to open at 4:45 a.m. and is estimated to be open for 15-20 minutes.

DC Police said on X that the opening was to let Motor Yacht 818 through. The yacht is possibly the same one once owned by former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, though it was reportedly sold last year.

Link to tweet

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Is there a toll? All the investment, maintenance, operating expense.

So some overweaned rich dude can sail his rubber ducky?

[PJMcK]

2. Not sure why this is news

Drawbridges are designed to open for maritime traffic. That is their purpose.

Is this post meant to shame the owners of a boat? They planned to transit the bridge at a time of minimum traffic so as to not disrupt that traffic.

A couple of years ago, my wife and I sailed from NYC to the Florida Keys and back. We traversed 187 bridges along the Intracoastal Waterway where about half the bridges were fixed with 65-foot vertical clearances, (our sailboat has a 45-foot air draft), while the rest were draw/swing/lift bridges requiring opening. Most of those bridges had restricted openings meaning they only open on request and only at certain times, e.g., on the hour and half-hour, for example. These bridges open for any vessel, big or small, that requests transit. Our boat is a modest 24-foot cruising sailboat and nearly every bridge tender we encountered was friendly, helpful and accommodating. While we saw many luxury yachts, their crews were always courteous and those vessels never got priority over other boats, (with a few exceptions due to the difficulty of maneuvering a large vessel in tight quarters).

One bridge crossing is a perfect example. There’s a bridge run by the military near one of their camps,(I won’t say which one for obvious reasons). It has VERY strict opening rules: on the hour and half-hour, no exceptions! Except the tender held the bridge for six minutes to accommodate us, violating those rules. It was thoughtful of him as it was late in the season and late in the day; if we had had to wait a half hour, we would have had to arrive at our anchorage after dark. He saved us trouble and possible dangers.

I’m actually impressed by the seamanship of this luxury yacht’s crew to be able to safely navigate the Potomac in the dark. It was polite of them, in my opinion, to request that opening when the impact would be minimal. Had they traversed the bridge at rush hour, chaos would have ensued. Actually, in my experiences, while the owners of such yachts might be rich assholes, the hired crews are professionals who handle these yachts in polite seaman-like manners.

These are just the thoughts of an old sailor.

[LearnedHand]

3. I thought it was just a traffic caution and maybe

A heads up for drawbridge enthusiasts?

[PJMcK]

4. Good points

I hadn't considered those. I guess I'm cynical this morning!

Enjoy your weekend, LH.