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BALTIMORE – Removal of the wreckage has begun with the recovery of a section of collapsed bridge from the water that provides access to the normally busy port of Baltimore. The Francis Scott Key Bridge almost completely collapsed on Tuesday after a rudderless container ship crashed into a pier. Six people were killed, but the bodies of four are still missing.
The remains of the major road bridge southeast of Baltimore block the port that is one of the oldest and busiest in the United States and relies on shipping via the Atlantic Ocean. The affected state of Maryland and the federal government are doing everything they can to get the port back in operation as quickly as possible. According to Maryland Governor Wes Moore, a section of the steel bridge just above the collision site is being cut into pieces and removed with cranes. He said that the work to make a hole in the steel blockade “will not take hours but certainly days.”
The ship that sailed on a pier is still there and will not be moved yet. It is still intact, according to Moore, and part of the collapsed bridge now rests on the nearly 1,000-foot vessel. According to experts from the coast guard and the armed forces, the container ship, the Dali, can only be removed once the remains of the bridge have been removed.
Maryland has pledged assistance to businesses and people whose work and income have come to a standstill. An estimated 15,000 employees of the port companies have had nothing to do since Tuesday. President Joe Biden has promised that the federal government will pay the costs of removing the remains of the bridge and building a new one. The 1977 bridge over the Petapsco River was part of a major beltway around metropolitan Baltimore.
