News is still coming in - looks horrific. From what we can tell, the Francis Scott Key Bridge was hit by a ship and has collapsed, with what have to me multiple casualties both above and below.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/26/us/baltimore-key-bridge-collapse-tuesday/index.html
I suppose it’s somewhat of a blessing this happened at 1 am or so rather than during rush hour when, no doubt, there would have been a lot more traffic on the bridge, but it’s the sort of bridge that no matter the time of day will always have some vehicles on it,
This Hebrew-language news site has video footage of the collapse:
That’s a hell of a lot of the bridge to be falling from one support being hit.
Holy crap! That’s horrible.
Video of the collapse (spoilered for those who might be upset to see it):
For those that aren’t familiar with the area, the Key Bridge is part of the Baltimore Beltway (I-695). It basically connects the southern side of Baltimore to the eastern side of Baltimore. It is one of the major routes around Baltimore.
Given the position of the bridge, I assume this means the Port will be inaccessible for weeks if not longer. On top of the tragic deaths, this is a major, major disaster.
What a terrible tragic event. I feel so awful for the victims. It almost looks like the boat was not being piloted at all. I’m eager to hear about the details.
Governor Shapiro has some experience in rebuilding a bridge pretty quickly. Perhaps he could be of some assistance.
Bridges are like arches - knock a key part out and the whole thing comes down.
How important is the Port of Baltimore?
According to Wikipedia:
"During the third quarter of 2017, the Port of Baltimore had a 15% increase in general cargo tons from the third quarter in 2016. Since 2014, the Port has become the fourth fastest-growing port in North America with a 9.8% increase in the amount of cargo handled from the previous year. It is currently ranked 8th of 36 US ports for gross tonnage and 7th in dollar value.
The Port handles one-fourth of the country’s coal exports"
Sounds pretty important.
Important. Less so now than it used to be, of course, but important both commercially and historically. To quote:
“The Port of Baltimore ranks first among the nation’s ports for volume of autos and light trucks, roll on/roll off farm and construction machinery, and imported sugar and gypsum. It ranks 11th among major U.S. ports for cargo handled and ninth for total cargo value. The port generates more than 15,300 direct jobs, with nearly 140,000 jobs overall linked to port activities. The port is responsible for nearly $3.3 billion in wages and salaries, $2.6 billion in business revenues and $395 million in state and local tax revenues.”
There are other roads in and out of the Port. They aren’t completely cut off.
Those other routes aren’t designed for that high of a level of traffic, so there are going to be all kinds of delays. Plus, 95 and 895 are going to be overloaded with 695 effectively shut down to Beltway travelers. If you are in Sparrows Point or Edgemere and you want to get to BWI, good freaking luck. You’ll be better off going up and around to get to 95 and then heading south. Of course 95 will be backed up to hell and back too.
Traffic is going to suck on the entire east, southeast, and south sides of Baltimore, but nothing is completely cut off.
ETA: I just realized you are probably talking about the waterway being closed due to debris, not the roadway issues caused by the bridge being gone. Yeah, that’s going to be a problem. They’ll probably be able to dredge out a path fairly quickly so that they can at least get a few ships through.
How many other bridges have this “single point of failure”?
I also imagine terrorists are taking note.
I should say, relatively less important. In 2020, eight of the top ten US ports were in Texas, Louisiana, and California (with the other two being NY/NJ and Virginia) with total tonnage putting Baltimore down at 18. But the Chesapeake has always been important to America and Baltimore is where it is for a reason.
My guess is that all of them.
Yeah, I was also going to say “all of them”. Bit difficult to engineer “survive being hit by a loaded thousand foot container ship”.
Yeah, I woke up to this and am wondering how it will affect my morning commute. I commute from Northern Virginia to Rockville. My entire commute is well west of Baltimore, so it might be totally fine, but with such a major incident, it’s hard to predict how far-reaching the consequences will be.
Needless to say, I’m so grateful that the consequences are limited to traffic (well, and market impacts). I keep envisioning actually being in a car on the bridge when it collapsed, and it’s such a horrible vision I hope it stops repeating on a loop in my head soon.
“Navigational status: stopped.” Yeah, no shit.
I’m sorry to report that we don’t know this yet. No one was hurt on the ship, but we don’t know about anyone on the bridge yet (unless you read some news I haven’t seen yet).
Yeah, I worded that wrong. I meant I’m glad that I’m grateful that the consequences affecting me are limited to traffic and market conditions. It sounds like some people are dealing with much more permanent consequences than that (i.e. death).