Both directions of the Delaware Memorial Bridge will close this weekend to allow a ship to pass. But why?

According to the Delaware River and Bay Authority, the Zhen Hua 16 is transporting large cranes up the Delaware River this weekend, bound for Philadelphia's Packer Avenue Terminal.

Now, when we say "large," we mean large -- the DRBA says the distance between the water and the top of the cranes is 188 feet, 5 inches. At that height, the Zhen Hua 16 can only go under the Delaware Memorial Bridge at low tide as they will come within less than 9 feet of scraping the bottom of the bridges.

The ship itself, according to marinetraffic.com, weighs an incredible 45,000 tons and is almost 800 feet long.

Obviously with such a large vessel coming that close to the suspended roadway, to eliminate drivers either freaking-out or stopping to watch it, the bridge will close for about a half hour sometime between 12:30 and 1:30 very early Saturday morning.

Here is video of the Zhen Hua 16...

 

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