Key Bridge struck
 

The Francis Scott Key bridge or Key Bridge as we call it around here suffered a devastating strike by an out of control container ship. The information coming out suggest the ship lost propulsion, and thus directional control, before striking the bridge.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/photos-ba...124703206.html

https://youtu.be/YVdVpd-pqcM?si=iRKCNmLHQ-A3fFGp

Horrendous disaster. Loss of life, and huge economic impact. How long to replace that bridge--two years? More? There will be a lot of questions here--it's a totally man-made disaster.

Truly awful. As a Maryland-based (retired) civil engineer with a Baltimorean wife, this hits real close to home, literally and figuratively.

I saw a video of the bridge collapse, initially fascinated at the structural side of the collapse. And then reading about the possible economic impact, still shaking my head.

Here in the Bay Area when they replaced a portion of the Bay Bridge (non suspension portion), they built a new bridge alongside and this took several years. Same for the Benicia-Martinez bridge, parallel construction.

I cannot even fathom the cost of reconstruction.

What a tragedy and will be a ongoing hardship for a good while.

Seeing how quickly the span disintegrated is frighting to consider. Especially for other bridges built similarly.

Hide-site will be 20/20 on this one.

It's looks like the emergency protocol caused the direct hit. If they had de-coupled the prop, and done nothing else, that thing would have cleared the support pier (or at least side swiped it).

I'm no maritime expert, but I have a lifetime of panicking and over-reacting under my belt.

Coulda, woulda, shudda.

Here's a video leading up to when the bridge was struck. I believe it is from when they first lost power? To me it looks like the Dali was going to hit the bridge support no matter what. They managed to change the angle of the hit but that was all.

https://youtu.be/G0keBilRddk?si=WzvNkU7cDtJ5m2Ks

From what the guy said reversing the prop does, they may have pushed the bow toward the support, as BEC was suggesting. Whether they would have missed without that effect is more than I know.