Florida car owners look on as captain tries to squeeze $275,000,000 superyacht through unforgiving bridge

Florida car owners watched on in impressed horror as a captain tried to squeeze a $275,000,000 superyacht through a very thin, unforgiving bridge, and the scene in Fort Lauderdale looked like a slow-motion stunt.

Drivers pulled over and watched as Feadship’s 103-meter Ulysses floated towards the SE 17th Street Causeway Bridge with barely any room on either side to play with.

The yacht is roughly 337 feet long, longer than a football field, which turned a routine bridge opening into a very precise maneuver that could have disastrous results if it went wrong.

It’s safe to say that onlookers held their breath while watching the superyacht approach the bridge.

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Captain tries to squeeze a superyacht through a tiny gap

From the shore, it looked very calm, but the footage tells a different story once you notice how slowly Feadship’s 103-meter Ulysses superyacht advances towards the SE 17th Street Causeway Bridge.

Not only did it approach achingly slowly, but the excited and horrified onlookers noted how often the yacht’s course was corrected.

The maneuver was described as millimeter work, with tiny adjustments to account for wind, current, and momentum when there is literally no space at all to recover from a bad angle.

The Ulysses was making its way into the city to reach the 17th Street Yacht Basin at the Hilton Marina, and locals said it was the largest yacht they had ever seen pass under that bridge.

In Fort Lauderdale, big yachts are normal, but this one is a different beast altogether, especially with a beam of more than 14 metres that has to stay perfectly centered through the opening.

The most unforgiving bridge in Florida

The SE 17th Street Causeway Bridge, officially the Clay E. Shaw Memorial Bridge, is infamous with captains for a reason.

It is a major ‘choke point’ on the Intracoastal route, and while the channel was widened during the bridge rebuild, the usable space can feel far tighter on the water than it looks on paper.

Add in busy port traffic, shifting currents, and wind causing a sort of tunnel effect, and even experienced captains treat it with extreme caution.

The bridge also has recent history of trapping its victims.

It is the same crossing where Frank Fertitta III’s superyacht Viva got wedged back in 2024, creating another viral moment.

That context made Ulysses’ gliding through without a scratch even more impressive, and explains why onlookers stayed frozen until the boat successfully passed through.

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