HOLY FUCK! A CONTAINER SHIP TAKES OUT THE FRANCIS SCOTT KEY BRIDGE IN BALTIMORE!
First off, our thoughts are with anybody affected by this awful event, especially those folks working on the bridge and crossing it as well as the cops, EMTs, jakes, and others that responded. And, of course, we're thinking of our buddies RDT & Banks at this time as well.
Baltimore's iconic Francis Scott Key Bridge was taken out by a container ship that appears to lose power shortly before colliding into the giant structure that crossed over the Patapsco River.
It's just a stunning video to watch and the bridge looks much smaller than it actually is. I've been over the Tobin Bridge here in Boston I don't know how many thousands of times and worrying about something like this happening still makes me shit my pants. It's a nightmare scenario.
I know in our conspiracy-laden world and people opting for "truths", the internet is already blaming terrorism. And honestly, when you do first watch it on the above clips, it does make one think "intentional?". But that's because they are edited to begin right at impact. So of course it's gonna look that way (also if it was, it would win "Worst Attempt" at the Annual Terrorism Awards).
Which is why I implore you to take the time to watch the Port of Baltimore YouTube feed and start it at 2:51:24.
You can see the massive cargo ship come in from the left. As it's approaching the bridge, the ship--loaded with packed trailers--appears to lose power and be put at the mercy of the current of the Patapsco. After minutes of drifting, the ship agonizingly and slowly heads toward one of the Key's piers before taking it out, causing the majority of the 47-year-old structure to collapse into the river in a horrific scene.
For the tl;dr crowd, you can see it was hardly 'full steam ahead!'.
The ship has been reported as The Dali. It's nearly 10 football fields long and the cargo alone can weigh over 233 million pounds. So I can't imagine what it must've been like for the captain to have no control over this hulking vessel with a river dictating which way she was going to head. And it ended up in the worst case scenario.
Sadly, this isn't unprecedented in the history of American bridges. On May 9, 1980, the same disaster took place at the original Sunshine Skyway, the bridge connecting St. Petersburg and Bradenton that traverses Tampa Bay.
