Mayor says rescue efforts are under way after vessel crashed into Francis Scott Key Bridge, sending vehicles into water

A portion of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore has collapsed after a large boat collided with it early on Tuesday morning, sending multiple vehicles into the water.

At about 1.30am, a vessel crashed into the bridge, catching fire before sinking and causing multiple vehicles to fall into the water below, according to a video posted on X.

“All lanes closed both directions for incident on I-695 Key Bridge. Traffic is being detoured,” the Maryland Transportation Authority posted on X.

Matthew West, a petty officer first class for the coastguard in Baltimore, told the New York Times that the coastguard received a report of an impact at 1.27am ET. West said the Dali, a 948ft (29 metres) Singapore-flagged cargo ship, had hit the bridge, which is part of Interstate 695.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
    4·
    10 months ago

    It still is thousands of tons of steel, which will not be pulled that easily. And it is steel that does not swim, but drag along the muddy ground.

    • someguy3@lemmy.caEnglish
      92·
      10 months ago

      You cut it into pieces, add some buoyancy things. Naval operations can be impressive. Hell the Navy probably already has stuff to do this exact thing in case of war and a bridge out of Port gets destroyed. You don’t want your Navy blocked in. You also don’t need to move it far to get shipping back.

      • Treczoks@lemmy.world
        2·
        10 months ago

        The “cut into pieces” will be interesting. There are a shitload of large pieces, and everything is under tension. The links between the pieces are rather large, and a good amount of them are under water. That’s going to be serious work.

      • drphungky@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        Feels like an army corps of engineer training exercise, especially after Biden committed to help rebuild. Be really interesting engineering coming out of both the cleanup, rebuild, and post accident analysis.

        • someguy3@lemmy.caEnglish
          2·
          10 months ago

          Cleanup will probably be Navy, rebuild will be civilian. Analysis is simple, ship lost power and hit the pier. Ships that size not sure you can do much.

            • reddithalation@sopuli.xyz
              41·
              10 months ago

              not the original commenter, but they used some buoyancy things to lift a section of the titanic, obviously thats very different, but i think they are like large bags that can be filled with air to lift incredible weight underwater.