By Kai McMillian
The Francis Scott Key Bridge is a 1.6 mile long bridge that was built on March 23, 1977 located in Baltimore, Maryland. It collapsed at around 1:30 pm ET on Tuesday March 27, 2024 (10:30 pm March 26, 2024 for pacific time). The cause of this collapse was due to a cargo ship that had collided with one of the bridge’s support beams as it was trying to pass under the bridge; the cargo ship was approximately 985 feet long. Due to one of the major support beams being destroyed, a majority of the bridge collapsed within seconds of being struck and more than half of the bridge was underwater within twenty seconds. From what has been said, the cargo ship lost power a few moments from collision with the bridge and issued a mayday distress call. It has been reported that there were around six who are presumed dead and two people have been rescued and are alive. According to officials, the six that have unfortunately passed were construction workers that were filling potholes and were performing other duties on the bridge. Although the ship was going at a pace of 8 knots (9 miles per hour), it doesn’t sound that fast but taking in account the ship’s substantial weight, it’s similar to going full force into a wall in a car. In the collision, the part of the bridge that has fallen was the area with the arch and support beams above the roads as it is the heaviest and most vulnerable area for the bridge as it is directly above water and it is the furthest point from the land.
As mentioned earlier, two people were rescued and there are six still missing, most likely the construction workers who are also presumed to be deceased. Rescue efforts are said to be very difficult as the temperature of the water reaches as low as 40 degrees and on top of that, the visibility from the debris and pollutants in the water make it difficult to navigate through the wreckage underwater to look for anybody, alive or not. In addition, the water is about fifty feet deep which can be compared to a five story building such as an office building, city apartment complex, to even a grand mall as an average mall is only 25 feet tall. Search efforts are taking place as of now such as search and rescue operations, alongside coast guard and air rescue surveying the area.
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