FULL COVERAGE PT. 5: Baltimore disaster - ship hits bridge that collapses, drivers thrown into water

The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland collapsed early Tuesday morning after container ship DALI struck a column of the bridge.

Baltimore City Fire Department Fire Chief James Wallace said crews responded to the Patapsco River around 1:40 a.m. to find a complete collapse of the bridge.

The impact sent multiple people and vehicles into the water.

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[shawdelscott]

They don t want to say terrorism attack but its not making sense
Why the ship wasn't in the middle of the bridge

[rickmontague]

Star Bangled Banner Bridge. Think About That? The National Anthem?

[railwaymechanicalengineer]

POSSIBLE ENGINEERING FAILURES & PROBLEMS !!!!
Large ships with only one Screw ! Not clever in confined waterways, when the ships power appears to have been lost. One Screw instead of multiple ones, means less ability to guide the ship. The ship should have been under the control of a local Pilot with intimate knowledge of this waterway, so he's the guy to question first !!! Secondly it is clear that this large Container ship physically hit one of the major support columns, indicating there was insufficient protection around the columns base, to keep ships physically away, to prevent such disasters. A virtually identical incident occurred to a major bridge on the highway to Key West (Florida), which was brought down 30-40 years ago ! That incident resulted in a very large increase in the diameter of the protection around that bridges supports, to prevent large ships from physically reaching the actual bridge supports.

Of course this type of "N" Girder bridge is maybe not wise today ! Because as clearly seen this method of construction shows that each major "N" Girder section is reliant on the integrity of ALL the other sections. Hence when one section collapses you have a domino effect that brings all the other "N" Girder sections down with it. Note the "flat" or level under girder sections of roadway at each end of the bridge were unaffected, and so remained standing, because they are NOT connected to the main central "N" Girder structures !!!

I'm a Senior Mechanical Railway Engineer, and "N" Girder type construction is typical in Railway Bridge construction in the past. But my brief summation of this incident is of course limited to a 7.00 minute piece of Web Cam film that caught the ships approach, and importantly the visible electrical failures on that ship. Which most likely contributed to the inability of the ship to avoid hitting the bridge, due to uncontrollable drifting. But only a thorough investigation by qualified authorities will be able to assess the full situation, and future remedial safety protections to prevent such a re-occurrence !

It will of course take a few years to replace the bridge, so traffic chaos for the foreseeable future !!!

[lawrencejneuser]

I bet if they would have had a tug in service, that would have never happened. It's only about the money, and now it's going to cost more.

[anthonyvenney]

Send Pete Buttigieg with his tiny yellow Bob the builder hard hat and Fisher-Price toy toolbox to fix it.🤪

[paulroese]

no regulations. ships should be able to take down bridges whenever they want. job killing regulations are more dangerous. vote republican!