Baltimore bridge collapse timeline: What happened before, during and after

Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed early Tuesday after a large cargo ship struck one of its support columns. Authorities were searching for six people who had been working on the bridge, but it's now a recovery mission. Norah O'Donnell, "CBS Evening News" anchor and managing editor, and Kris Van Cleave, senior transportation correspondent, report.

[weztciide]

RIP to those hard working men, who were probably just providing for their families.

[sherryleggett]

Thank God it was in the middle of the night. If it had happened at rush hour there could have been a huge loss of life. I am so sorry for the families of the victims.

[Ash.Par]

RIP to the 6 construction workers who lost their lives. Thoughts and prayers going out to the families. 🙏 💕

[alexj]

Bridge collapses
Witness - It sounded like rolling thunder
Reporter - What was the rolling thunder?
Me - Smartest reporter

[loyalityone]

I’m from Baltimore and travel the bridge on a regular basis. SHA just redid all the roads leading up to the bridge and removed all the old toll boothes. It’s been a few years now, but like new. The bridge itself seemed like it was in decent shape, showing its age a little, but I was never afraid to drive across it. I’m also a boater and have passed underneath the bridge many times. You can tell that it was always being maintained etc. To me, having a 100, 000 ton (or whatever weight) container ship with all that cargo collide with the support, would make any bridge crumble. Tragic event, my heart goes out to all personally impacted this and have lost a loved one.

[b_green]

The size of that ship doesnt do just how big that bridge was justice. It's incredible anyone was able to survive a fall that high up.

[chunyuenlau]

Absolutely no way they are going to find the bridge construction or maintenance at fault. No bridge, no matter how well constructed, is able to withstand being hit by a 100 thousand ton of metal.

[YusufPetersenCPT]

So there were no cars on the bridge only the construction workers? May their souls rest in peace.

[jojoh]

So tragic.

I’m rubbish at physics and have no clue about engineering but I’m shocked that a bridge can collapse so quickly from one crash. I guess I always assumed there was some built in resilience. Lesson learned.

Bear in mind I’m speaking from the UK where we just don’t have the giant rivers and bridges you have in the US. But we do have the bridge to Skye for instance…..

Grateful that it didn’t happen when loads of cars were on the bridge and thoughts with the families of the missing workers.

Thank goodness the crew managed to get out the mayday so that cars weren’t on the bridge at the time. That that system worked saved a lot of lives. I’m sure everyone involved is traumatised but I hope some comfort can be taken in the lives they saved.

May those who lost their lives in this tragedy rest in peace.

[soceraris]

Such a tragic event. Heart goes out to all the victims and the families. This is eerily similar to my home city Hobart where a cargo ship struck the bridge, sunk and vehicles drove off the severed section into the river. This was back in 1975, and it took 2.5 years to recover the bridge damages. As a result, the government mandated that traffic is halted each time a ship crosses beneath as a safety precaution. My prayers to Baltimore.

[freddyp]

Did he say rebuild the port?🤦🏾‍♂️ smh. Feel so bad for those families. That's why I get nervous crossing big bridges at night like that

[paolotayag]

1:44 Not a cargo ship expert, but the plums of smoke was probably an emergency diesel generator that had started to restore power. Which is why power was probably restored.

[zeezee]

Praying for the victims and their families and loved ones 🙏🏽🤲🏽😢❤

[TylerDurden-nb]

It was clearly an accident. I've seen many of very close calls with bridges and barges/ships etc.., its actually a miracle that we haven't seen more of these types of incidents.

[makeupbyjessx]

Jeez, Norah really did her job today. Thank you for mentioning all the behind the scenes details that weren't asked. She really cares about this story and for these people. What a hard day it had to have been. I can't believe the bridge is gone. Thank you for effectively communicating the emotion some of us feel about this collapse, to people who might not understand. It really is shocking. Like a modern day 9/11 without the terrorism, but somehow still has emotional weight? It's weird...

[jeremiahwilkins]

I think the blessing is that this happened at night, and not during rush hour.

[blazeofglory]

I grew up maybe 6 mins away from the bridge, MAYBE 6 mins, and ive lived in Virginia for a couple years and its devastating all the way down here. My entire small rural community is thinking of everyone nearby when the bridge went down. I went to work and everyone asked me what was wrong, i looked withdrawn apparently, im just without words and in shock.

[pannyvet]

As a former architect student I remember the lesson about bridges so well.... Pure nightmare. So many calculations, and the professor always insisted that we have to use the max amount of weight that gives flexibility and duration to vibration etc. But when I see this metal/tell brigsed fell down while those 2000+ years bricks bridges still standing I wonder if we are learning things wrong.

[lvp]

Why does the Port Authority of Baltimore allow a container vessel 300 meters long, almost 50 meters wide and loaded with 10, 000 containers to sail along the port's exit channel without being supported by at least 2 or 3 tugboats until open sea to avoid emergency situations, and even more so with the obstacle of a bridge built in the 70s designed for navigation at that time when there were no ships with the large dimensions that exist today?

[carolinaespinoza]

How did they have time to stop cars on time but they couldn't tell the workers to get out