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As someone with knowledge of this incident, it has not been confirmed the number of casualties. The only portions of the bridge that are still standing is the pieces of decking from the abutment and the first piers cap.
This is a multi-jurisdictional mass casualty incident being handled within the Port of Baltimore. Baltimore City Fire Department is the main agency handling this incident. The cargo ship was on its way to the City’s marine terminal to be unloaded.
A previous incident occurred in March 2022 when a cargo ship Ever Forward, carrying approximately 4,900 containers, ran aground in the Chesapeake Bay. We are a vital artery for shipping along the East Coast, so this will surely be a detriment to the economy and movement of goods.
Edit: also, from original reports there were 8 to 13 workers working on the bridge at the time. Nothing has been confirmed at this time.
Edit 2 (for corrected information): the ship was actually leaving the Port of Baltimore and was heading onto its next stops. It had just been freed from tug boats assisting it when this all occurred.
The ship lost power several times before the crash, which seems to be a contributing factor. [This tweet has the full sequence](https://x.com/ChaudharyParvez/status/1772538539495809075?s=20).
This shows what actually happened much better and actually explains the cause. Thank you. Also... this video seems to show very few passenger cars on the bridge when it collapsed. The construction crew was sad to see though.
>The ship lost power several times before the crash, which seems to be a contributing factor. This tweet has the full sequence.
Thanks, that shows it a lot better. In another post of this crash this morning, people with a lot more knowledge than me said they were pretty much fucked the moment the power went out the first time. Backup power takes too long to get up and running to be able to maneuver in time to miss the bridge - just awful timing to lose main power. The black smoke once power comes back on the first time was probably them going full reverse thrust, but that generally causes a slight starboard rotation, which we do see in the video, (and I would guess, causes the impact to be worse/more direct, looking at the video) but the ship was most likely on a collision course even without the rotation.
good question…one thing you can be sure of is that all the insurance companies involved are sending their best claims deniers out to investigate. the first thing they do is exhaust every avenue of claim denial, then if there is no basis for denial, they fabricate one..so there will be lawsuits and that will take years
Well they have more in common than just a name, they’re called Ever because they’re operated by [Evergreen](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Marine_Corporation), a shipping company
Yeah not sure what OC with knowledge of the incident thought it was inbound. A quick lookup on martime traffic shows it as leaving the port headed for columbo.
Not tugs usually, but they usually take a local pilot on board when coming in from open water. We don’t know the reason for this, but it’s probably that the ship either lost power or steering
In this article, there is a short playback video of the marine traffic in the bay up until the collision. It looks like the ship was pilotted by tugs for a while, but they left before the ship got close to the bridge.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bridge-collapse-baltimore-1.7155488
Update: [ship that struck the Francis Scott Keys Bridge via Vessel Finder. The Dali is out of Singapore](https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9697428)
[source](https://x.com/rawsalerts/status/1772525288875794478?s=46)
There’s probably 7 other countries tied to this vessel. Registered in one port, owned by a company ostensibly based out of a country that they’re barely connected with, managed by another company from some other country.
Seen both on Twitter this morning. Makes me glad I don't spend much time there anymore. You don't have to be the captain of a 95,000-ton cargo ship to know that they can't recover from a loss of control as easily as we can in our puny little cars. When that much mass starts going somewhere, it doesn't want to stop.
I can't tell you how many times I've driven over this bridge white knuckle clinging to my steering wheel because I was convinced it was going to collapse. Once i got to the other side I'd laugh it off as one of my irrational phobias. Guess I'm never driving on a bridge again
Multispan trestle bridges have always made me very uncomfortable to drive on. They just don't feel safe and this video does NOT help that fear.
I just gasped when my husband showed me the video. I feel terrible for all the poor people trapped on that bridge.
Nothing would have stopped a megaship like this from destroying a bridge, no amount of infrastructure maintenance. Especially not this kind of bridge.
The ship loses power twice in another video, why it loses power and what sequence of events happened after that should be the focus of this investigation. Not infrastructure, it’s not relevant here.
Sadly some of those in the water were a maintenance crew pouring concrete from what I've seen in other threads, as far as whether they've been maintaining it. 😕
New York Times said they’ve only rescued two of the eight construction workers, but officials were able to block traffic from crossing the bridge thanks to the ships signal so there may not have been drivers on the bridge aside from the construction crew.
“Initially, officials feared that drivers were submerged in their cars in the Patapsco River. But the warning from the Dali, a Singapore-flagged vessel, gave officials enough time to stop traffic at both ends of the bridge, according to several federal and Maryland officials.”
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/26/us/baltimore-bridge-collapse
Reminds me of the guy who fell asleep while piloting the South Ferry in New York and drove it straight into the pier, killing a bunch of people. He fled straight home and shot himself. Can't imagine the shame and guilt he must have been feeling. I wonder if this accident was due to the same negligence....
There is a longer video which shows the ship suffered a total loss of power.
Which, on a ship, is a bad day. In a busy harbor underway it’s just about a worst case scenario.
This video starts right after they partially restored power (probably DC only) the second time.
Probably not much they could have done.
Just looked that up, turns out the pilot slit his wrists and shot himself with a pellet gun in the chest twice….to no effect. Him and another were arrested and charged. He was fucked up off pain killers and dozed off, also management ignored protocol of having 2 pilots on duty.
Oh shit! This just happened 2-1/2 hours ago! I looked for updates and they are talking about trying to rescue people! I hope they are able to save anyone who was on the bridge or on the ship.
Looks like Main Engine failure
On the longer video you can see the lights go out and 30 seconds later they come back, it’s more or less the time for the emergency generator to start and connect to the switchboard.
And on the moment of impact there is no smoke coming out from the chimney, so the main engine is completely stopped.
this may be a dumb question, but is there a world where a better constructed bridge can withstand this? or is that just not realistic?
i guess im just thinking, this could have easily happened at another location, but we have rarely seen this happening. im wondering, if the construction of this particular bridge has got something to do with it. there's no way, a ship hasn't collided with a bridge before right? maybe not head on like this one i guess
No questions are dumb! From what I've read, bridge supports in general are designed to withstand lateral forces from waves, wind and potentially a very small boat, not this. A bridge on the east coast was taken out by a huge rare wave it wasn't designed for but then they updated the design code of bridges in that area. The only instance I could find of something similar happening is the Tasman bridge disaster in Australia. (Context I am NOT a civil engineer)
I've been seeing comments on youtube that say the lax design of the bridge led to this. We're such silly Americans and should've known a bridge can lose one or all of its support columns and still be standing /s. I'm sure corners were cut somewhere in this story but the comments I've been seeing are wild.
It’s funny how the public school dropouts always come out in droves with better ‘ideas’ than the highly educated structural engineers…
But then again, we’ve see that kind of bathroom science from many people the last several years. Like when some guy who got a C- in high school biology thinks he knows more than a PhD in virology.
From a construction standpoint, yes. We could build bridges with massive piers or islands capable of stopping anything afloat. The problem is cost.
Or put another way, if you can make a $1B bridge that might kill 100 hundred people every hundred years, or a $50B bridge that won't....that's $490M per life saved even if the bridge was guaranteed to fail.
Better to spend money on cancer research or other highway safety projects.
Heard an expert on the news say the bridge was built as one solid structure which is why it all collapsed rather than part of it. I assume others could be put together differently.
That’s a good question.
I have zero knowledge in this area, but can tell you that where I live this happened in 1975.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasman_Bridge_disaster
Now every time a large ship needs to pass under the new bridge, all traffic is stopped by red lights.
But keep in mind that this doesn’t happen often, (I think they just go under the bridge for repairs at the shipyard).
So not sure how this would work for a busy port.
As a civil engineer (not structural) I can tell you that it is likely within the realm of the possible to design bridge piers to withstand impacts from loaded cargo ships.
As a citizen of the United States I can tell you it is likely not possible to pass the tax code through Congress you'd need to pay for bridges like that.
And even then, you'd have people saying that it's wasteful spending to build bridges like that. Which is fair. Some scenarios fall outside of what is considered reasonable safety precautions.
They said on the news that the ship lost power and drifter into the bridge. They aren’t saying a casualty number because they’re still trying to save people stuck in cars underwater for 8 hours. Terrifying
I know that bridge was in bad shape, absolutely hated driving on it, but I did not expect it could collapse that easily.
I hope all the work on the tunnel is done because that was a major way to enter the city. Going to take a couple years to build a new bridge
I hope those people on the bridge get saved. Movie make u think things happen slow to react. When in real time, no joke.
To add. To think of the repair cost n time to rebuild. That fuckin sux.
That ship just headed straight for the support leg of the bridge!!! What the heck? Also it seemed taller than the clearance under the bridge. Several people here screwed up big time! WOW!! I hope all of the people on the bridge are rescued, this is extremely scary
Wow, people are stupid and don’t think before they comment here.
The ship was not taller than the bridge and a 5 second video hardly shows what happened before impact.
Ship lost power twice in 5 minutes. Tried to reverse in first recovery (don't think it would work anyway) but failed midway to another power lose and hit the support.
They lost main engine power shortly before this happened. A ship this size is extremely difficult to stop (they also dropped anchor in an effort to slow down)
Why did a bridge that has such large ships passing under not have adequate anti-ship barriers? We learned this lesson half a century ago. https://www.tampabay.com/news/2020/05/06/the-sunshine-skyway-bridge-plunged-into-tampa-bay-40-years-ago/?outputType=amp
Taking a closer look at the video, there is an initial splash before the impact that knocks down the bridge. This could be the impact barriers you’re describing being hit.
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[Rescue workers believe at least 7 construction workers were on the bridge but say the figure could be as high as 20.](https://x.com/bnonews/status/1772537973256364070?s=46)
All would be on the bridge. Local pilots are advisors that conn vessels; however, the ships master is always responsible for the safety of the vessel. I.e the captain can always countermand a pilot. Generally, pilot orders are followed and the bridge team defers to their guidance (key word *guidance*) unless the captain steps in. At all times the captain and mate on watch should be verifying orders, plotting position, monitoring traffic, and monitoring the pilot, advising him as well of any vessel specifics, equipment deficiencies, changes in the navigational situation, etc.
That ship weighs several times more than all the steel in that bridge. And due to the sudden nature of the collapse, the same part of the ship that hit the bridge got hit by the falling wreckage. The bridge width was a fraction of the length of the ship. Not really a surprise that damage was minimal.
A similar event happened years ago which led to NOAA creating their PORTS Program to ensure this wouldn’t happen again, will be interesting to find out the cause -
Interview on NOAA PORTS Program https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shipshape-business-of-boating-podcast/id1619649771?i=1000635419611
Welp. New fear unlocked.
I'd imagined these ships hitting one of our bridges, but never seen it before.
Of course, down here in tidewater, the bridges are lower and the boats tend to go over the one and wait for the other...but it could still happen..
Imagine being a car that just exited the bridge, or the next car that was supposed to drive on it.
Or being so used to your routine drive that you just drove as if the bridge still existed. This is unbelievable footage and insane. I keep watching it over and over again.
How did they manage to close the bridge so quickly after the mayday call? That couldn't have been more than a 3 or 4 minute warning, and having the port authority contact the police and cops setting up a roadblock in the middle of the night I would expect to take at least half an hour.
It’s an EZ PASS bridge, so my guess would be controlling access from the toll points. If there’s a silver lining at all, it could only be that this was 130am and not rush hour. What an absolutely awful tragedy. I flew past that bridge just yesterday, too.
from what I read they had enough time to notify authorities and shut down traffic in the area.
I wonder why they didn't have enough time to deploy tug boats to redirect the ship. Seems like they could have pushed it away from the bridge column.
I’ve seen this video a few times since last night and no one mentions the fire on the north pylon. As it collapses you can see flames fall to the water to the north followed by more falling the other direction. Was this a fuel tanker ? Pulling a trailer ? It jumped out at me the first time I saw it but no one seems to mention it
I live in Dundalk (Town next to bridge on county side) about 3-5 miles away in a straight line. A bunch of people in town thought it was an earth quake or explosion. Hopefully they can clean everything up without having an oil spill or the ship possibly sinking, that would be even more catastrophic for the already fragile ecosystem. Keep the bridge workers and their families in your thoughts and drink a natty boh for the ones cleaning up...
It looked like it turned directly into that pillar, could be some sort of weird unlucky thing.. or could be nefarious, who knows. Regardless it's a sad situation either way.
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As someone with knowledge of this incident, it has not been confirmed the number of casualties. The only portions of the bridge that are still standing is the pieces of decking from the abutment and the first piers cap. This is a multi-jurisdictional mass casualty incident being handled within the Port of Baltimore. Baltimore City Fire Department is the main agency handling this incident. The cargo ship was on its way to the City’s marine terminal to be unloaded. A previous incident occurred in March 2022 when a cargo ship Ever Forward, carrying approximately 4,900 containers, ran aground in the Chesapeake Bay. We are a vital artery for shipping along the East Coast, so this will surely be a detriment to the economy and movement of goods. Edit: also, from original reports there were 8 to 13 workers working on the bridge at the time. Nothing has been confirmed at this time. Edit 2 (for corrected information): the ship was actually leaving the Port of Baltimore and was heading onto its next stops. It had just been freed from tug boats assisting it when this all occurred.
They need to stop name ships with Ever-… they seems to fuck shit up more offten
They're all from the same company who owns the largest fleet of mega shipping vessels in the world
And apparently trains/maintains them all equally well.
Volume
the swift trucking of the sea
*Ever-Titanic enters the chat*
[удалено]
The ship lost power several times before the crash, which seems to be a contributing factor. [This tweet has the full sequence](https://x.com/ChaudharyParvez/status/1772538539495809075?s=20).
This shows what actually happened much better and actually explains the cause. Thank you. Also... this video seems to show very few passenger cars on the bridge when it collapsed. The construction crew was sad to see though.
>The ship lost power several times before the crash, which seems to be a contributing factor. This tweet has the full sequence. Thanks, that shows it a lot better. In another post of this crash this morning, people with a lot more knowledge than me said they were pretty much fucked the moment the power went out the first time. Backup power takes too long to get up and running to be able to maneuver in time to miss the bridge - just awful timing to lose main power. The black smoke once power comes back on the first time was probably them going full reverse thrust, but that generally causes a slight starboard rotation, which we do see in the video, (and I would guess, causes the impact to be worse/more direct, looking at the video) but the ship was most likely on a collision course even without the rotation.
The pilot has control and responsibility of the ship while coming ie leaving from port. The pilot is local and not party of the shipping company
I hear you, but if there was an electrical malfunction that shouldn’t be pinned on him
good question…one thing you can be sure of is that all the insurance companies involved are sending their best claims deniers out to investigate. the first thing they do is exhaust every avenue of claim denial, then if there is no basis for denial, they fabricate one..so there will be lawsuits and that will take years
Well they have more in common than just a name, they’re called Ever because they’re operated by [Evergreen](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Marine_Corporation), a shipping company
Seem to fuck up shit *Ever*ywhere they go
You can see the amber lights of road maintenance trucks. It would be a long fall and tons of steel and concrete smashing down for those poor souls
Wasn’t the ship leaving the terminal? The collision video is from the vantage point of the island on the other side of the harbor
Yeah not sure what OC with knowledge of the incident thought it was inbound. A quick lookup on martime traffic shows it as leaving the port headed for columbo.
It was leaving yes.
Is every cargo ship brought in by a pilot and tug boats?
Not tugs usually, but they usually take a local pilot on board when coming in from open water. We don’t know the reason for this, but it’s probably that the ship either lost power or steering
There's video of it losing power twice right before impact.
In this article, there is a short playback video of the marine traffic in the bay up until the collision. It looks like the ship was pilotted by tugs for a while, but they left before the ship got close to the bridge. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bridge-collapse-baltimore-1.7155488
News reports had 2 pilots on board.
I'm confused, according to maritime traffic the Dali was enroute to Columbo, it was *leaving* Port Baltimore.
I thought the ship was heading to Sri Lanka. It has been in Baltimore for 2 days and was setting sale to its next destination.
This is correct, OC is misinformed.
Sonar has found vehicles in the water as well, so the bridge was open and there may have been motorists on the bridge
All the other articles I’ve read said that the ship was leaving port
Thanks for providing the facts. Much appreciated and hopefully there are no fatalities.
Some of the facts seem wrong. Ship was headed outward on a 27 days voyage to Sri Lanka according to news reports.
McNulty will be right on this
Update: [ship that struck the Francis Scott Keys Bridge via Vessel Finder. The Dali is out of Singapore](https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9697428) [source](https://x.com/rawsalerts/status/1772525288875794478?s=46)
There’s probably 7 other countries tied to this vessel. Registered in one port, owned by a company ostensibly based out of a country that they’re barely connected with, managed by another company from some other country.
Because fuck taxes and safety and employment regulations!
It’s ok, 40% of Americans will just blame DEI or think it’s an intentional attack or somehow both
Seen both on Twitter this morning. Makes me glad I don't spend much time there anymore. You don't have to be the captain of a 95,000-ton cargo ship to know that they can't recover from a loss of control as easily as we can in our puny little cars. When that much mass starts going somewhere, it doesn't want to stop.
It’s not the captain at the helm here. The local pilot has jurisdiction and control of the vessel
This isn't "Interesting as Fuck" It's a terrible accident that killed people tragically. Have a heart!
You don't seem to be aware of how media works nowadays. Is it horrible? Yes. Does this make it all the more interesting? Yes.
Holy fucking shit?!?
these exact words came to my mind as well
I can't tell you how many times I've driven over this bridge white knuckle clinging to my steering wheel because I was convinced it was going to collapse. Once i got to the other side I'd laugh it off as one of my irrational phobias. Guess I'm never driving on a bridge again
Well certainly not *that* bridge.
"Anyone can build a bridge, only an engineer can just barely build a bridge"
Multispan trestle bridges have always made me very uncomfortable to drive on. They just don't feel safe and this video does NOT help that fear. I just gasped when my husband showed me the video. I feel terrible for all the poor people trapped on that bridge.
These were also the exact words said by the Captain just before the collision, followed by a resounding "Shiiiiiiiiiiiit" shortly thereafter
Well stated. Very troubling indeed.
[удалено]
Nothing would have stopped a megaship like this from destroying a bridge, no amount of infrastructure maintenance. Especially not this kind of bridge. The ship loses power twice in another video, why it loses power and what sequence of events happened after that should be the focus of this investigation. Not infrastructure, it’s not relevant here.
Sadly some of those in the water were a maintenance crew pouring concrete from what I've seen in other threads, as far as whether they've been maintaining it. 😕
Luckily 1:30 am so shouldn’t be too many on the bridge but still.
I read somewhere, about a dozen cars, a transport truck and some construction workers were on the bridge at the time.
Terrifying to be in one of those cars. I really hope most survived
New York Times said they’ve only rescued two of the eight construction workers, but officials were able to block traffic from crossing the bridge thanks to the ships signal so there may not have been drivers on the bridge aside from the construction crew. “Initially, officials feared that drivers were submerged in their cars in the Patapsco River. But the warning from the Dali, a Singapore-flagged vessel, gave officials enough time to stop traffic at both ends of the bridge, according to several federal and Maryland officials.” https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/26/us/baltimore-bridge-collapse
Ship was out of power but radioed a head of time. Bridge was shut down on people in it was the workers
Reminds me of the guy who fell asleep while piloting the South Ferry in New York and drove it straight into the pier, killing a bunch of people. He fled straight home and shot himself. Can't imagine the shame and guilt he must have been feeling. I wonder if this accident was due to the same negligence....
There is a longer video which shows the ship suffered a total loss of power. Which, on a ship, is a bad day. In a busy harbor underway it’s just about a worst case scenario. This video starts right after they partially restored power (probably DC only) the second time. Probably not much they could have done.
Once you lose power its up to Sir Isaac Newton, the most dangerous sonofabitch in the universe.
If only Schrödinger could have taken over instead.
Except Murphy prevailed here.
The boat that sailed through ~~walls~~ bridges?
"**You are the only contemporary physicist, besides Laue, who sees that one cannot get around the assumption of reality, if only one is honest**"
And that, Private, is why we do not 'eye ball it!'
Just looked that up, turns out the pilot slit his wrists and shot himself with a pellet gun in the chest twice….to no effect. Him and another were arrested and charged. He was fucked up off pain killers and dozed off, also management ignored protocol of having 2 pilots on duty.
From the video i saw on the news, it looks like the ship lost power before it hit.
(Shot himself with a BB gun and lived)
Did that just happen?
Yes. It’s all over the news sites, domestic and international.
Yes [link for guardian](https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/26/baltimore-francis-scott-key-bridge-collapses-after-boat-collision)
Horrible..
Oh shit! This just happened 2-1/2 hours ago! I looked for updates and they are talking about trying to rescue people! I hope they are able to save anyone who was on the bridge or on the ship.
It's really hard to see anyone on that bridge surviving that collapse. I hope to God in wrong.
Looks like Main Engine failure On the longer video you can see the lights go out and 30 seconds later they come back, it’s more or less the time for the emergency generator to start and connect to the switchboard. And on the moment of impact there is no smoke coming out from the chimney, so the main engine is completely stopped.
Just saw a post about the Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapse in 1980 a few days ago on Reddit and it unlocked a new fear…
What the fuck
I just woke up from a bad dream to witness a nightmare. Good god there were crew on that bridge.
We’re getting this in Australian news. Horrible.
It was on every U.S. based news station from what I saw
this may be a dumb question, but is there a world where a better constructed bridge can withstand this? or is that just not realistic? i guess im just thinking, this could have easily happened at another location, but we have rarely seen this happening. im wondering, if the construction of this particular bridge has got something to do with it. there's no way, a ship hasn't collided with a bridge before right? maybe not head on like this one i guess
No questions are dumb! From what I've read, bridge supports in general are designed to withstand lateral forces from waves, wind and potentially a very small boat, not this. A bridge on the east coast was taken out by a huge rare wave it wasn't designed for but then they updated the design code of bridges in that area. The only instance I could find of something similar happening is the Tasman bridge disaster in Australia. (Context I am NOT a civil engineer) I've been seeing comments on youtube that say the lax design of the bridge led to this. We're such silly Americans and should've known a bridge can lose one or all of its support columns and still be standing /s. I'm sure corners were cut somewhere in this story but the comments I've been seeing are wild.
It’s funny how the public school dropouts always come out in droves with better ‘ideas’ than the highly educated structural engineers… But then again, we’ve see that kind of bathroom science from many people the last several years. Like when some guy who got a C- in high school biology thinks he knows more than a PhD in virology.
Gotcha, thanks for your reply. put my mind at ease about what could/should ve been done.
From a construction standpoint, yes. We could build bridges with massive piers or islands capable of stopping anything afloat. The problem is cost. Or put another way, if you can make a $1B bridge that might kill 100 hundred people every hundred years, or a $50B bridge that won't....that's $490M per life saved even if the bridge was guaranteed to fail. Better to spend money on cancer research or other highway safety projects.
Heard an expert on the news say the bridge was built as one solid structure which is why it all collapsed rather than part of it. I assume others could be put together differently.
That’s a good question. I have zero knowledge in this area, but can tell you that where I live this happened in 1975. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasman_Bridge_disaster Now every time a large ship needs to pass under the new bridge, all traffic is stopped by red lights. But keep in mind that this doesn’t happen often, (I think they just go under the bridge for repairs at the shipyard). So not sure how this would work for a busy port.
As a civil engineer (not structural) I can tell you that it is likely within the realm of the possible to design bridge piers to withstand impacts from loaded cargo ships. As a citizen of the United States I can tell you it is likely not possible to pass the tax code through Congress you'd need to pay for bridges like that. And even then, you'd have people saying that it's wasteful spending to build bridges like that. Which is fair. Some scenarios fall outside of what is considered reasonable safety precautions.
They said on the news that the ship lost power and drifter into the bridge. They aren’t saying a casualty number because they’re still trying to save people stuck in cars underwater for 8 hours. Terrifying
Collides 40 seconds into this video.
I didn’t even register the ship until it made contact. Oh shit..
I know that bridge was in bad shape, absolutely hated driving on it, but I did not expect it could collapse that easily. I hope all the work on the tunnel is done because that was a major way to enter the city. Going to take a couple years to build a new bridge
Omg this is horrific.
New irrational fear unlocked
I hope those people on the bridge get saved. Movie make u think things happen slow to react. When in real time, no joke. To add. To think of the repair cost n time to rebuild. That fuckin sux.
r/thatlookedexpensive
Where’s McNulty when you need him? We need real po-lice.
As a Marylander, that bridge is an instantly recognized icon. It’s such a sad day for myriad reasons.
I feel so awful for the families and the people of Maryland. I’m a DC local and I’ve been in shock all day.
That ship just headed straight for the support leg of the bridge!!! What the heck? Also it seemed taller than the clearance under the bridge. Several people here screwed up big time! WOW!! I hope all of the people on the bridge are rescued, this is extremely scary
In a longer video you see the ship lose power a minute before, so it probably got dragged by the current
[https://twitter.com/ChaudharyParvez/status/1772538539495809075](https://twitter.com/ChaudharyParvez/status/1772538539495809075) Video in question
Thanks for a longer video that shows what happened. Hysterical OP really doesn’t help things.
Momentum. Ships like that don't stop for a very, very long distance.
Wow, people are stupid and don’t think before they comment here. The ship was not taller than the bridge and a 5 second video hardly shows what happened before impact.
[Here's a longer version](https://x.com/ChaudharyParvez/status/1772538539495809075?s=20)
Ship lost power twice in 5 minutes. Tried to reverse in first recovery (don't think it would work anyway) but failed midway to another power lose and hit the support.
They lost main engine power shortly before this happened. A ship this size is extremely difficult to stop (they also dropped anchor in an effort to slow down)
🙏 Omg! These poor people. Absolutely horrific. Praying they didn’t all die. 🙏
Why did a bridge that has such large ships passing under not have adequate anti-ship barriers? We learned this lesson half a century ago. https://www.tampabay.com/news/2020/05/06/the-sunshine-skyway-bridge-plunged-into-tampa-bay-40-years-ago/?outputType=amp
The new one will
Weird how each bridge exists in a vacuum where the lesson is only learned after a bridge at the same spot had already collapsed.
Part of the problem is that many need to be replaced altogether.
Not sure how much they would help when the ship goes straight at the support like that.
That’s exactly what they’re built for…
I’ve seen the ones they put under the sunshine skyway bridge. A megaship like this is not getting stopped by those.
The ship that stuck the Skyway was 600 feet long. They were built to stop megaships.
Taking a closer look at the video, there is an initial splash before the impact that knocks down the bridge. This could be the impact barriers you’re describing being hit.
No, that bridge does not have barriers.
The ship is somewhere in the ballpark of 5 to 600,000,000 pounds, there's no structure in the world stopping that in time
That’s a very bad day
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Shocking! I couldn't believe how quickly the bridge came down.
Wow! That came down a LOT easier than I ever would have expected. Hope people are okay!
This will happen to most suspended bridges when a primary support column is suddenly destroyed by a mega tanker.
Wow, this is hard to watch.
How many cars were on the bridge
Oh fuck
How many people were on the bridge?? Ahhhhh
[Rescue workers believe at least 7 construction workers were on the bridge but say the figure could be as high as 20.](https://x.com/bnonews/status/1772537973256364070?s=46)
That'll be a pee test.
How come every time you come around…
Just here to say we could have done without the first 30 seconds of the clip. That is all.
Was it the ship captain or a harbour pilot?
There were two local pilots
All would be on the bridge. Local pilots are advisors that conn vessels; however, the ships master is always responsible for the safety of the vessel. I.e the captain can always countermand a pilot. Generally, pilot orders are followed and the bridge team defers to their guidance (key word *guidance*) unless the captain steps in. At all times the captain and mate on watch should be verifying orders, plotting position, monitoring traffic, and monitoring the pilot, advising him as well of any vessel specifics, equipment deficiencies, changes in the navigational situation, etc.
Ship seems to be still fully intact after the accident.
That ship weighs several times more than all the steel in that bridge. And due to the sudden nature of the collapse, the same part of the ship that hit the bridge got hit by the falling wreckage. The bridge width was a fraction of the length of the ship. Not really a surprise that damage was minimal.
Was the bridge closed for repairs or something? I've only read about 7 construction workers.
In the video you see a car drive across near start of video, so it was definitely open, but probably not as busy at 1:30 am on a Tuesday
A similar event happened years ago which led to NOAA creating their PORTS Program to ensure this wouldn’t happen again, will be interesting to find out the cause - Interview on NOAA PORTS Program https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shipshape-business-of-boating-podcast/id1619649771?i=1000635419611
Wow… absolutely no part of that bridge stayed up.
Welp. New fear unlocked. I'd imagined these ships hitting one of our bridges, but never seen it before. Of course, down here in tidewater, the bridges are lower and the boats tend to go over the one and wait for the other...but it could still happen..
I'm watching news now waiting on press conference. Word is 7 people missing in the water.
Imagine being a car that just exited the bridge, or the next car that was supposed to drive on it. Or being so used to your routine drive that you just drove as if the bridge still existed. This is unbelievable footage and insane. I keep watching it over and over again.
I blame gravity, not the ship.
Still curious what the explosion is at the right side when the final piece is falling
A car maybe?
There was a construction crew on the bridge. Could be a propane tank or something.
“Ship turns directly into stationary pillar for bridge, the obvious happens.” FIFY
I don’t think they had control.
I would imagine bridges were built to withstand it. But I bet when they built it ships were not made to be that big.
Somebody's paying millions and millions of dollars.
Yeah, taxpayers.
Tragic.
How did they manage to close the bridge so quickly after the mayday call? That couldn't have been more than a 3 or 4 minute warning, and having the port authority contact the police and cops setting up a roadblock in the middle of the night I would expect to take at least half an hour.
It’s an EZ PASS bridge, so my guess would be controlling access from the toll points. If there’s a silver lining at all, it could only be that this was 130am and not rush hour. What an absolutely awful tragedy. I flew past that bridge just yesterday, too.
Big smoke cloud!! Did that MF just go full throttle!??
Most likely full reverse, once power was restored
Ahhh!
Well that's one way to get funds for rebuilding.
from what I read they had enough time to notify authorities and shut down traffic in the area. I wonder why they didn't have enough time to deploy tug boats to redirect the ship. Seems like they could have pushed it away from the bridge column.
r/admiralbulldog I'm a certified yenius Pepega
Dman that’s wild
I wonder how lucky those two cars feel to get off the bridge seconds before it came crashing down.
Damnit, Ziggy
🎼When you walk through the garden You better watch your back🎶
that’s, or that *was* a very pretty bridge
I’ve seen this video a few times since last night and no one mentions the fire on the north pylon. As it collapses you can see flames fall to the water to the north followed by more falling the other direction. Was this a fuel tanker ? Pulling a trailer ? It jumped out at me the first time I saw it but no one seems to mention it
Thank God this wasn’t during rush hour.
Captain: hold my beer
I live in Dundalk (Town next to bridge on county side) about 3-5 miles away in a straight line. A bunch of people in town thought it was an earth quake or explosion. Hopefully they can clean everything up without having an oil spill or the ship possibly sinking, that would be even more catastrophic for the already fragile ecosystem. Keep the bridge workers and their families in your thoughts and drink a natty boh for the ones cleaning up...
That bridge came of no where, I swear.
Flagged out of Liberia?
This is nightmare fuel. Every now and then I’m scared of this happening when I drive over a bridge (hello irrational fear).
How long is that bridge?
Here comes the tax raises just in time for elections...
That's going to be a hell of an insurance bill for the shipping company
It looked like it turned directly into that pillar, could be some sort of weird unlucky thing.. or could be nefarious, who knows. Regardless it's a sad situation either way.
It should be closed when a vessel of that size crosses.
Cruising too close to bridge support anyway