What took a few minutes to destroy could take 5 yrs or so to replace and talk about the damage to millions in many ways. Hearing the 6 workers that are missing, are likely gone. Just HORRIBLE...
Joe Biden claimed he had traveled over the collapsed Baltimore bridge “many many times” by both car and train, despite the structure not having any railway lines. In an address to the country after the destruction of the iconic Francis Scott Key Bridge yesterday, the US president promised to provide federal funds to rebuild it and protect the livelihoods of workers at the Port of Baltimore. He said he was familiar with the bridge, having used it to travel from his home state of Delaware to Washington. “About 1.30am, a container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which I have been over many many times, commuting from the state of Delaware by train or by car,” he said. https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-tells-train-journeys-over-195626455.html
The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the Baltimore Harbor is already posing a massive disruption to the automotive industry. The port handles imports, exports and parts shipments for major automakers like Audi, Bentley, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Jaguar-Land Rover, Lamborghini, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Stellantis, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo — all of which will more likely than not see major supply chain issues. Baltimore Port’s private and public terminals handled 847,158 vehicles in 2023, according to Automotive News. Some automakers seem to be more impacted than others. Volkswagen said its operations were largely unaffected because of the location of its facilities. Meanwhile, Ford’s CFO told Bloomberg that the bridge collapse is “going to have an impact.” https://www.yahoo.com/autos/heres-auto-industry-impacted-baltimore-171500347.html
I was wondering what impact this has on the port itself as @Beth Gallagher's post mentions. Could this be a port that supplies for Israel and perhaps Ukraine go through? Does the bridge structure prevent ships entering and leaving i.e., is it the only entrance to the harbor? I don't think it is clear from the posts.
Maybe the trains Joe Biden rode across the bridge caused the collapse...since there are no rails there.
The impact of this disaster is very very deep and it's on my radio a lot during the day and it's reported there are some 8000 dock workers who will be affected with no work and it is going to be years for a replacement bridge....
I read that the ship's crew issued a mayday call that resulted in vehicle traffic being halted, which apparently saved a lot of lives. I have to wonder why they didn't alert that work crew to get off the bridge, though.
I saw a timeline of events that showed the mayday call was 2 minutes before the bridge fell. Maybe there wasn’t enough time? I’d like to know who got the call. I read that the workers were on break in their trucks. I wonder if they didn’t see something was going wrong with the ship.
When these things happen it takes weeks, sometimes months, to figure out what happened. In the meantime, speculations about nefarious things pop up as fast as the imagination can work, and spread over the internet. By the time they figure out what really happened, it's old news, forgotten about, and sometimes not even reported. People only remember the wild speculations.
If you have ever had a boat, you will know that when the anchor grabs, the boat will swing right or left. Right, @Cody Fousnaugh ? You need to cut back on the throttle, let the boat almost stop, then drop the anchor. If you put the boat in reverse, it will swing even harder. Hubby and I learned that the hard way. We approached the bank at too high a speed. He reversed the boat and nearly threw me out. If they dropped the anchor, the ship would have swung. If they reversed the throttle on the ship, it would have swung into the bridge even harder. I don't see a conspiracy.
The explanation about the helm helps as well. I can't remember which anchor was dropped either. If the starboard anchor was dropped, it could have produced the effect shown when it grabbed. If the helm was turned as the power went out and it did not take effect, it could have done it as well, but a competent pilot and master should have known those things and accounted for them. The idea of a cyber attack comes from the fact that it was done to a ship last year and it ran aground.