Prior to the ship hitting the support column, you can see it lose power, then regain power, then thick smoke starts billowing out the top, then it loses power again, and regains power again seconds before contact.

Could the bridge have been engineered to be strong enough to survive an impact by a >100k ton ship? Maybe, but it seems like better backup and emergency systems on these huge ships might be a more practical idea. Obviously we are still very light on information.

jesus

also this bridge is a massively important part of keeping the entire east coast functioning. the tragedy of the people who were on it is obviously more important, but this is a massive disaster, like holy shit. the number of people this bridge is important to?

I wonder if the chuds will blame TikTok and trans people for this, and not like, the state of their Empire

There is no bridge in the world that would withstand a direct hit to a support by a container ship.

8 years ago, the bridge was called "structurally deficient", although I don't know if anything changed since then.

It was called one of Amerika's scariest bridges for truckers 3 years ago. People have called it "high and tight".

Real annoying how the only posts with any information beyond this are coming from the most MAGA chud accounts imaginable. Serves me right for using Elon's hellsite.

The bridge had about 30k daily crossings and it appears to be part of an outerbelt system, so while it will detour lots of traffic (including regional distribution hubs, i.e. Amazon), I think the bigger effect will be on shipping because Baltimore is the 18th largest port by tonnage and the only way in is full of bridge.

Update: The port is indefinitely closed until the channel can be cleared to a depth of 50 feet

The Baltimore Port ranked first in the nation in handling automobiles, light trucks, farm and construction machinery, as well as imported sugar and gypsum. The Port ranked second in the country for exporting coal... Moreover, in 2023, the Port of Baltimore handled a record 52.3 million tons of international cargo, valued at $80.8 billion.

Notably, this may negatively affect rumored union action that was already prompting companies to reroute cargo to the West coast.

Something to consider, I guess.

it was hit by a

This ship rammed the bridge pillar:

300 metres long, fully loaded so around 115.000 tons

>Write national anthem for country
>Country names bridge after me
>Bridge collapses
>I'm a metaphor or something

Calling it now, the rescue operation will be a shitshow and cops will get in the way

My hot take is this shouldn’t be possible to occur as an accident during normal operations. Either the bridge is dilapidated or poorly designed, or ships that large should not be allowed under it.

Shit like this will occur with increasing frequency in America, and it will be normalized as an unavoidable, just like mass shootings.

God it's so embarrassing how many online libs are suddenly bridge engineers now and trying to explain away this disaster. Like their only explanation for this is that sometimes massive ships will just hit and collapse bridges and that fine.

Like no reflection on why a 50 year old bridge didn't have any modern protective measures, why massive Panamax ships are apparently seconds away from catastrophic impact every time it passes this thing, how they even let a ship on the verge of a double power failure into the harbor in the first place.

Reported on the top of Reddit as an “incident” that closed the bridge.

They can’t turn off the propaganda switch. It’s stuck in the on position.

Vaxxed?

am i wrong to think this is going to become a major point down the road? from what I hear, it's a lot of Midwest US that's getting impacted due to the effect this will have on shipping, which feels like one of those things that becomes a catalyst for some greater economic/political tension down the road

not to talk over the loss of life or anything here, it's a tragedy in of itself

I know nothing about driving(?) boats, let alone a massive shipping container, but how the fuck does this happen. Captain have a few drinks or what?

Jesus Christ that looks awful