75-foot boat gets stuck under Florida bridge in bizarre way, photo shows
A 75-foot boat got stuck in the most peculiar of ways when it parallel parked itself between bridge pylons in the Florida Panhandle.
It happened Friday, Aug. 15, beneath the four-lane William T. Marler Bridge in Destin, and traffic was temporarily blocked so it could be removed, Destin city officials said in a news release.
The boat was being towed through the East Pass at the time of the incident, officials said.
“Luckily nobody was injured,” the city wrote. “It’s a boat the county has planned to use as a reef. It was in transit and got caught in the current.”
It took less than 15 minutes to tow the boat out from under the bridge, but the jokes just keep coming on social media.
“Now that’s how you parallel park!” Katie Anderson wrote on the city’s Facebook page.
“I got this. Here, hold my beer,” Will Parks posted.
“I thought this was a parody,” Chastity Burton said.
“How the heck does that happen,” TraceyDanae Kesterson posted.
“Takes some skill to mess that up this badly!” Christine Morin Hall said.
The 24-year-old diving boat, named the Nekton Rorqual, delayed its fate, but still ended up a shipwreck.
It was intentionally sunk around 5 p.m. Aug. 15 off the Destin-Fort Walton Beach coastline, Okaloosa County officials said.
The boat will now become a habitat for marine life and a scuba diving attraction named the “Ted Forsgren Nekton Rorqual Reef.”
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This story was originally published August 18, 2025 at 8:11 AM.