It's really happening. The SS United States, the largest passenger ship ever built in the nation, is to be deliberately sunk and transformed into the world's largest artificial reef. Florida's Okaloosa County bought the 1,000-foot ocean liner, which was to be evicted from Philadelphia's Pier 82 after a years-long rent dispute, from the SS United States Conservancy for $10 million last month, with plans to turn it into a tourist attraction for divers off Destin-Fort Walton Beach, per WPVI. And after a delay attributed to a storm in the Caribbean, the SS United States is now set to leave Philadelphia for the first time in more than 30 years.
At high tide Thursday, expected to be around 11:45am, tugboats will move the ship to Pier 80, from which it will be towed down the Delaware River beginning at low tide Friday morning. Officials said the Walt Whitman Bridge, Commodore Barry Bridge and the Delaware Memorial Bridge would be closed as a result, creating a headache for drivers. From Delaware Bay, the ocean liner will be towed to Mobile, Alabama, where hazardous materials will be removed in preparation for sinking. "It will also undergo modification to ensure the vessel will land upright when it is sunk to the Gulf floor," per WPVI.
The trip—coming "almost 55 years to the day that [the ocean liner] was removed from commercial service in 1969," per the Maritime Executive—will take about two weeks. Okaloosa County officials say it could be another year before the SS United States is ready for its final resting place at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Though the exact spot hasn't been chosen, officials expect the ship to land in the Destin-Fort Walton Beach area, per CBS News. To the site will be added "a land-based museum and visitors center to honor the ship's history," reports Jalopnik. You'll be able to track the ship's journey here. (More artificial reef stories.)
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