BALTIMORE BRIDGE: MORE INFORMATION

 This is information I have gotten from Good Morning America (ABC) this morning ... well the program is this morning - I actually don't generally watch until later in the day- its after 5:30PM today

ABC has zoomed in on the video of the crash - and the bridge actually fell ON TOP OF the ship.

They classified the ship not as a cargo ship but as a CONTAINER ship - meaning it carries a LOT more goods than mentioned on Outnumbered (FNC) ,, that is a "cargo ship" will generally have set spots to place goods, think the Edmund Fitsgerald (yeah the one that sank in Lake Superior in the early 1970's) the aren't like a barge, but do have a tall bridge towards the back of the ship, the front has a low profile, but not like a barge.
A CONTAINER SHIP, has a flatter surface on the rigging, so that those large freight containers can be loaded & stacked to as many as they can fit on-board without goving over their weight limit ... its how items are generally shipped across the world - and why it took so long for things to arrive during the "shut down" of 2020-2022 ...

This extra weight of the cargo will ADD to the stopping distance of the ship as well. I know, you would think something so heavy would slow it down, but water is very unlike roadways/land - it has a lot less FRICTION which is what is needed to slow things down.

But that's all engineering stuff and I won't bore you.

The ship itself, according to ABC news, was 948 feet long -- about the same as a SKYSCRAPER on its side! Generally, a "story" is considered to be 10 ft high in an average home, but 15 ft. high in an office building ...
that would make it as long as a 68-94 story building ...
that would make it taller than Trump Towers in Manhattan!

It was reported by witnesses on scene that the ENTIRE bridge had gone down - but on helicopter shots today, you can see that it is just the CENTER sections of the bridge which have collapsed.
Still bad but its not the entire thing - the part which makes a triangle with the land is still there - likely only 2 sections on one side and the other side of the river having at least 10 sections, but still ... they will of course still have to be REMOVED during the reconstruction.

The Delaware River, which the bridge expands, is a MAIN shipping lane for the COUNTRY ... both importing and exporting goods ... many everyday items will come into its ports and then be shipped across the nation.

This of course means - it's going to get tougher to get things, so prices are going to GO UP EVEN HIGHER than they already were!!!

Police/Firefighter audio describing it as it happened said:
        "Eight construction wokers were on the bridge, according to the according to the construction worker. We have one.  There's seven unaccounted for.
        He said, there was a dump truck, a pickup truck, a large truck, and a Nissan car that he knows of that was on the bridge at the time of collapse." 

Baltimore Harbor is the 9th largest in the USA ...

Last year over 12 cars passed over the 4 lane bridge (2 lanes in each direction) ... now how they figure this out I don't know - I suppose they have some sort of a counter which records it.

The bridge opened in 1977 ... so as far as bridges go, its still rather young 

No one on the ship, Dali, were lost, all are safe ... but from what I saw on the closeup of the impact of the bridge - they lost a few containers into the water, and I'm sure plenty more which didn't fall over are pretty well smashed!

I have seen a photo of the bridge before it was struck - and I've got to say - its a BAD design to begin with ...
to get on/off the bridge, there is an incline - that's not the issue ...
The issue is seen by the RIVER traffic side of things  
Ships can ONLY go under the bridge in ONE place -- the VERY CENTER of the bridge!
And even that area is threading a needle ... 

It is sure dumb LUCK that no one has had an accident before this!  If they stray by less than just a little bit, they are going to ram into the bridge deck.

Although - looking at the close up shots - i looks as if there were flashing lights just one the outside of center hump.

Although, I gotta give whoever was at the helm credit - the pylon he hit was just on the outside of the center area ... it was so close its sad.

They will be doing background checks on the captain, crew, and ship to be sure that something hadn't been been missed.