On the menu today: The bridge disaster in Baltimore.
Catastrophe in Baltimore
Baltimore is a major port city, and has been since before American Independence. It has a large natural harbor, which opens to the Chesapeake Bay. The smaller Inner Harbor is no longer used by commercial vessels and serves as the center of downtown, featuring the National Aquarium and other tourist attractions. Further out, there are five shipping terminals, located on both sides of the harbor.
To defend the port from invaders, the newly independent U.S. built Fort McHenry in 1798. The fort is on elevated land that juts out into the harbor, allowing clear visibility in all directions facing the sea. Under attack from the British during the War of 1812, the fort occasioned Francis Scott Key’s writing the poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry,” which was renamed the “Star-Spangled Banner” and when set to music became the U.S. national anthem.
Fort McHenry today is maintained by the National Park Service, with the fort fully preserved and open for tourists. It is very much worth seeing if you are ever in Baltimore. One of the most notable things about the view from the fort was the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which was completed in 1977 and so named because it was close to the spot where Key was on a ship when he wrote the “Defence of Fort M’Henry.” Rising over the entrance to the harbor, the bridge was a city landmark.
One of the bridge supports was struck by the Dali, a container ship, at 1:28:45 a.m. today. The bridge collapsed within seconds. The Dali was leaving Baltimore for Colombo, Sri Lanka, with nearly 5,000 containers on board. The ship was built in 2015 and is owned and managed by two Singaporean companies. It is also flagged in Singapore. The ship was being leased by Maersk, the Danish shipping giant, at the time of the crash.
Video shows the ship’s power going out several times in the minutes before the crash. The ship had strayed off course in those minutes, suggesting that navigation was hindered. The bridge collapsed onto the ship, which remains trapped under it.
Singaporean authorities have said they are cooperating with U.S. authorities to aid the investigation into the incident. Local, state, and federal transportation authorities, along with the Coast Guard, are involved. The FAA has closed airspace over the area to allow rescue helicopters to operate.
A maintenance crew of eight workers was on the bridge at the time of the collapse doing repairs on the concrete roadbed. Given the time of the collapse, traffic was sparse. Maryland officials said they do not believe any people have been trapped in their cars. Governor Wes Moore credits that to bridge authorities, who he says closed the bridge to passenger traffic minutes before the crash in response to the ship’s mayday call.
Two people have been rescued from the water, one with severe injuries, one without. Six others are still missing. It is unlikely they will be found alive, given the water temperatures and the length of time that has passed. Twenty-two crewmen, all from India, were on board the Dali. They are all uninjured.
The bridge was a continuous truss bridge, which was advantageous for the design because it allowed for a wider span than an ordinary truss bridge, giving ships room to pass underneath. The bridge had the third-longest span of any continuous truss bridge in the world, at 1,200 feet. For perspective, the Dali is 157 feet wide. Ships are usually nowhere near the supports for the bridge, but the Dali strayed off course for several minutes before the crash.
Continuous truss bridges distribute weight throughout the entire structure. Because of that, if one part of the structure fails, the entire thing will collapse. The Key Bridge was not known for safety problems or poor maintenance in recent years. The deck, superstructure, and substructure were all rated satisfactory in 2023, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
Impact of the Collapse
The bridge was one of three interstate-highway crossings of the Baltimore harbor. The first was the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, completed in 1957 and now designated as part of Interstate 895. The second was the Key Bridge, part of Interstate 695, the beltway around Baltimore. The third is Interstate 95’s Fort McHenry Tunnel, which runs under its namesake and was completed in 1985.
The Key Bridge was the outermost crossing of the harbor, and all terminals are located to the west of it. No vessels will be able to access any of the terminals from the Chesapeake until the debris is cleared. At least three bulk carriers, one vehicle carrier, and one tanker are trapped in the harbor for the time being.
Baltimore is the largest roll-on/roll-off (RORO) port in the U.S. RORO ships usually have ramps that allow cargo to be wheeled on or off. This is in contrast to container ships, which are loaded and unloaded with cranes.
Typical RORO cargo includes cars, trucks, and farm machinery, and Baltimore specializes in those goods. It is also located within driving distance of a significant portion of the U.S. population, making it a good East Coast destination for goods that will then be loaded onto trucks.
Since the other two interstate-highway harbor crossings are tunnels, the Key Bridge was the only crossing that permitted vehicles carrying hazardous materials. Through hazmat traffic will still be able to use the western half of the I-695 beltway, which runs entirely on the surface.
Much of Baltimore’s highway infrastructure was built and designed under assumptions of much greater population than currently lives in the city. From the 1950s through the early 1970s, Baltimore had a population of over 900,000 people. Today, it has fewer than 600,000.
The two tunnel crossings of the harbor are ordinarily much busier than the Key Bridge was. According to the Maryland Transportation Administration, the Fort McHenry Tunnel carries 45 million vehicles per year, and the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel carries 28 million, compared to 11 million for the Key Bridge. And the western half of I-695 is still available for cars as well.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge was an impressive feat of engineering when it was completed the first time, and rebuilding it will be challenging. Exactly what those plans look like is unclear right now. Economic impacts will be felt in RORO-dependent industries that utilized the port. Baltimore will never look the same. And the families of six construction workers have likely lost loved ones.