Baltimore bridge

[WhoaJayShettybambalam]

Is anyone watching the news? It’s awful. Those poor people on the bridge.

[Fooshufflewickjbannanapants]

Absolutely awful but if there was a 'best time' for it to happen at least it was as quiet as it gets and not rush hour. Epic structural fail though.

[WhoaJayShettybambalam]

True I suppose. It’s just awful.

[evilharpy]

It said on Sky News there was a search and rescue and I think 7 people being looked for. Just awful, I can't imagine how scary it must have been for the people in the cars.

[crumblingschools]

Frightening how quickly it collapsed. Feel sorry for people missing but thank god it wasn’t rush hour

[WhoaJayShettybambalam]

@evilharpy thanks, I’ve been watching with sub titles in the gym! I’m surprised it’s only 7.

[OvaHere]

Just saw the footage of this. Terrifying how quickly it collapsed. I think this will be found to be a serious structural failure as well as whatever went wrong with the ship that collided with it.

[Saisong]

Just heard on the radio, it's awful. I think there will be more casualties as there are reports there were work crews on the bridge at the time. My heart goes to all those involved 😔

[BobnLen]

Just see it on the BBC and you could see the cars headlights on it and them going into the river, about 20 workers they are saying now and of course those cars. It just all collapsed.

[Rowgtfc72]

Been watching this. The cargo ship missed the gap by a mile.
Hoping for news of survivors.

[Pireck]

It's horrendous, and surprising that the entire bridge collapsed after a collision at one point. Apparently the bridge was built in 1977 so it isn't particularly old. I can't imagine what it must be like to be involved in such a disaster.

[bluecomputerscreen]

awful!

it's a major route across the river. a very busy bridge.

in the footage it almost looks like the ship aimed at the support. but I appreciate that it's a fast flowing river with strong currents and tidal tows.

[boys3]

Just watched the pictures on BBC Breakfast. It is a big container ship. It looks like it’s a pretty big span and with Baltimore being I’m assuming a fairly busy port with large ships in and out all the time quite how it has managed to get off course and to hit the support stanchion ?????

[MumHereAgain2023]

So so sad

[shockeditellyou]

@OvaHere

Just saw the footage of this. Terrifying how quickly it collapsed. I think this will be found to be a serious structural failure as well as whatever went wrong with the ship that collided with it.

Almost certainly nothing structurally wrong with it, it's just not built to survive hundreds of thousands of tonnes of ship colliding with it!

[crumblingschools]

But would you expect the whole bridge to collapse? Also surely it should be designed to withstand some forms of collision

[IVFlife]

Awful

[shockeditellyou]

@crumblingschools

But would you expect the whole bridge to collapse? Also surely it should be designed to withstand some forms of collision

Yes, you absolutely would expect a whole bridge to collapse if one of its major structural supports is rammed by hundreds of thousands of tonnes of moving ship! Do you have any idea how much momentum that ship will have had?

A bridge will be designed to withstand collision, but not by a well-laden container ship.

[LipstickLil]

I'm not sure it's a structural fault - have you seen the size and weight of the ship that hit the bridge? It was a massive, fully loaded container ship. The force with which it would've hit, even at a low speed (which presumably it was doing as it exited the port), would've been immense. Horrific! Reminds me of the Morandi Bridge collapse in Genoa a few years back. Thank goodness it happened at 1.30am when presumably many fewer vehicles would've been crossing than at other times of day.

[BobnLen]

The ship was huge and looked well laden, some of the first pictures didn't convey the size that well

[shockeditellyou]

So my back of the envelope calculation suggest that if the ship was fully laden (data for gross tonnage online) and travelling at 1m/s, it would have the equivalent force on the bridge of 10kg TNT. A speed of 6knots, which I think is reasonable for a harbour, is around 3m/s, and gives a force equivalent to around 92kg of TNT.

[tanstaafl]

I’m guessing the bow of the ship nudged the bridge support out of the way.
No way the support could withstand the mass of the boat.

[Hoppinggreen]

Terrifying and a big fear of mine (probably irrational). A route we take a couple of times a year has a similar bridge and I always have my hand on my seatbelt release. Not that I imagine that would help but it gives me a small measure of peace.
My thoughts are with all the victims and their families

[MsFaversham]

I read there were two power failures on the ship. I guess time will confirm or not.

[WhatsTheUseOfWorrying]

@shockeditellyou

So my back of the envelope calculation suggest that if the ship was fully laden (data for gross tonnage online) and travelling at 1m/s, it would have the equivalent force on the bridge of 10kg TNT. A speed of 6knots, which I think is reasonable for a harbour, is around 3m/s, and gives a force equivalent to around 92kg of TNT.

That’s impressive. Thank you.

[TokyoSushi]

Looks pretty terrible, agree the ship that has hit it is enormous and I'm so sorry for the people involved.

I'd imagine that the bridge being out, and essentially disappeared is going to cause chaos for months if not years to come.