Baltimore Bridge Total Collapse, Francis Scott Key bridge

I've been watching this on the news. It's horrible.

Heartbreaking stuff.

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This is exactly what happened in 1980 to the first Skyway bridge. My Dad missed that tragedy by 10 minutes. He saw the cargo ship coming in too close as he was going to work that morning.


This happened at 1:30am, but it looks like the entire bridge fell. Also being in Baltimore you'd have to think traffic would be more likely than other bridges at that time.

I hope Holden Pike is ok, I think he's in Baltimore.

Yeah, I am fine, everybody I know is good. I did use that bridge occasionally, but only once or twice a month to get to band gigs. It is not one of my regular routes.

Craziness.

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That's not even the "scary" bridge in the area. There are lots of people who are terrified to use the much bigger Bay Bridge. This is not going to help anybody with bridge-crossing anxieties anywhere in the world.

Our gigantic Amazon fulfillment center is right on one side of that bridge. The traffic headaches this is going to create throughout the area for many, many months is not gonna be pretty.

I have driven across that bridge, and I recall it was extremely long. Was surprised to see the entire thing come down. That will be a massive undertaking to rebuild, and I hope this time the engineering has progressed along enough to withstand a strike like this without the entire structure collapsing.

It was a horrible accident. The bridge could have been fully protected by the addition of concrete "dolphin structures", which were added around the piers to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge on Tampa Bay. See picture:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge

I feel certain these will be added to the new bridge construction in Baltimore. It's nuts that they didn't already have those in place, given the amount of commercial barge traffic.

Am I correct in what I’m reading that this particular ship hit a bridge before this one? Somewhere overseas.

Ever been to MDF there, then? I went back in 2022, and it was absolutely amazing.

I live 30 minutes give or take from the bridge and didn't even know this happened until I saw it on the news yesterday morning. Used to take that bridge all the time to get to certain parts of the city.

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6 people presumed dead and I heard a while ago they've suspended the search for them. Very sad.

God knows what the visibility must be like down there. I would would really hate to be one of those divers. Chilling stuff.

This is from a diver that did recovery after the Skyway bridge went down.

https://www.wptv.com/news/state/retired-diver-pulled-victims-from-tampa-skyway-bridge-collapse-44-years-ago

For those who have never been here, this is what it was like driving over the bridge heading into the county

I just heard 2 men were recovered in a truck.

reminds me of the final destination 5 bridge collapse scene

Yeah, I heard that as well! Same barge! Ummm... if it was already a little wonky, why was it still in operation? And if it had been inspected after that first run-in, whoever inspected it needs a stern talking-to.

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Yeah it crashed into a port in Belgium a few years ago.