The major Beltway Bridge over the Patapsco River has collapsed after being hit by a large cargo ship, sending vehicles travelling on the bridge tumbling into the water.
A four-lane bridge carrying the Interstate-695 over the mouth of Baltimore harbour collapsed in the early hours of Tuesday morning, around 0130 EST (0530GMT). Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott has said he is aware of an “incident at the Key Bridge” and that emergency services are on scene
UPDATE 1200EST — Not terrorism, FBI thinks. City managed to stop cars driving onto bridge at last minute
We’ve had the press conference from the Maryland governor and others on the situation in Baltimore, and it is a mixed picture. Eight people are thought to have fallen into the river at the time of impact from a city construction crew who were repairing potholes, but only two of them have been recovered so far. On the upside, the Governor says there was time between a distress call from the ship and it striking the piles to close traffic to the bridge. This may have been a matter of seconds.
The governor has praised those who closed the bridge at such short notice as “heroes”. Read all about it here.
Also speaking was the local FBI representative who says so far it appears this was not a terrorist attack. The latest on that here. Baltimore police appear to concur, and have also said there is “absolutely no indication” that the collision was deliberate.
Boats move near a container ship as it rests against wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, as seen from Dundalk, Md. The ship rammed into the major bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, causing it to collapse in a matter of seconds and creating a terrifying scene as several vehicles plunged into the chilly river below. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
UPDATE 0915EST — Ship ‘lost propulsion’
As reported at length earlier, it was clear there were serious problems aboard the MV Dali in the minutes before it collided with the Beltway Bridge, with onboard power going out four minutes before impact, plunging the ship into darkness. Now the BBC notes “an unclassified memo” from the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) states it has confirmed the ship “lost propulsion” before hitting the bridge.
So evidently the ship was, as nautical parlance has it, ‘not under command’, meaning “at the mercy of winds and seas” — and in this case, inertia. What we do not know is whether this state of having “lost propulsion” means the engine ceased to function, or if the coupling taking the energy from the engine to the propeller was damaged. In either case the ship was disabled at a critical moment and in a critical place and collided with enormous force.
A bridge engineer speaking to Breitbart News today said the bridge suffered a “catastrophic failure” after being struck but this isn’t exactly the fault of the bridge. The amount of energy embodied in a moving container ship weighing over 110,000 tons full laden is enormous and fortifying a large bridge against that kind of impact is essentially beyond what material science is capable of.
The search for survivors continues, but the cold water presents a serious challenge. One person in in hospital and two others are said by the Baltimore fire department to have been rescued. Up to a dozen others — mainly from the road repair crew working on the bridge at the time of the strike — may still be in the water.
In this aerial image, the steel frame of the Francis Scott Key Bridge sits on top of a container ship after the bridge collapsed, Baltimore, Maryland, on March 26, 2024. The bridge collapsed early March 26 after being struck by the Singapore-flagged Dali container ship, sending multiple vehicles and people plunging into the frigid harbor below. There was no immediate confirmation of the cause of the disaster, but Baltimore’s Police Commissioner Richard Worley said there was “no indication” of terrorism. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Parts of the Francis Scott Key Bridge remain after a container ship collided with a support Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Baltimore. The major bridge in Baltimore snapped and collapsed after a container ship rammed into it early Tuesday, and several vehicles fell into the river below. Rescuers were searching for multiple people in the water. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)
MARCH 26, 2024: Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed on March 26, 2024, after a support column was struck by a vessel. (Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed early Tuesday March 26, 2024, after a support column was struck by a vessel. Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
UPDATE 0800EST — Pictures from the scene
While we’ve had livestream footage from the scene all morning, photographers have been slow to get a view of the damage at the mouth of the Port of Baltimore. Here are the best so far, illustrating the enormous level of damage caused, blocking the river.
The steel frame of the Francis Scott Key Bridge sits on top of a container ship as a helicopter makes a pass after the bridge collapsed in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 26, 2024. (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP) (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
(Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
A section of the roadway still stands after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after it was struck by a container ship, in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 26, 2024. The collapsed sent multiple vehicles and up to 20 people plunging into the harbor below. “Unfortunately, we understand that there were up to 20 individuals who may be in the Patapsco River right now as well as multiple vehicles,” Kevin Cartwright of the Baltimore Fire Department told CNN. Ship monitoring website MarineTraffic showed a Singapore-flagged container ship called the Dali stopped under the bridge. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)