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UPDATE (Tuesday, 1:00 pm EDT):

In his speech today, #PresidentBiden said that the crew of the ship was able to alert the Port Authorities that they had lost control of the ship, prior to impact with the bridge. This warning allowed the #KeyBridge to be closed, undoubtedly saving lives. But an unknown number of cars and several maintenance workers were apparently still on the 1.6-mile (2.5 km) bridge when it was struck by the cargo ship.

The #ArmyCorpOfEngineers is on site and assisting with the disaster.

Over 13K cars drove across the bridge every day. The Port of Baltimore is one of the major American ports and impacts 15K jobs. He has promised that the federal govt will fund the rebuilding of the bridge, and we will not need to wait for lawsuits or private industry to pay for it.

#BridgeCollapse #BreakingNews #Disasters #Breaking_News #Baltimore #Maryland #BaltimoreBridgeCollapse #BridgeDisaster #FrancisScottKeyBridge #FrancisScottKey

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The #FrancisScottKeyBridge was opened in 1977 and took five years to build, at a cost of over $60M. The bridge had four lanes across 1.6 miles / 2.57 km and had a drawbridge. Including the approaching roadways, the entire stretch of the #KeyBridge was 10.9 miles / 17.5 km long.

"The steel-arched bridge was the second-longest continuous-truss bridge span in the world when it was built and remains the second longest in the United States and third in the world."

Cargo ships of the size that hit the pylon would routinely travel under the bridge.

The bridge was named for #FrancisScottKey who authored "The Star Spangled Banner" in 1814, after witnessing the British defeat at the Battle of Baltimore and the British bombing of Fort McHenry.

#BridgeCollapse #BreakingNews #Disasters #Breaking_News #Baltimore #Maryland #BaltimoreBridgeCollapse #BridgeDisaster

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/2024/03/26/francis-scott-key-bridge-history-baltimore/