Latest News From USA : Tuesday saw the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge due to a collision with a cargo ship that sent automobiles plunging into the ocean. This bridge acts as the entrance to the Port of Baltimore and is an essential piece of infrastructure supporting the US East Coast.
After five years of construction, the four-lane steel Francis Scott Key Bridge was finished in 1977. Its length is 1.6 miles (2.6 km). Following the Battle of Baltimore in 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote the “Star Spangled Banner” over the Patapsco River. With a height of 185 feet (56 meters), the bridge provides plenty of vertical clearance.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge, which was built for about $110 million, allowed for more lanes of traffic and required less money for upkeep and operation than a tunnel.
The I-695 freeway, also referred to as the Baltimore Beltway, circles Baltimore and is used by 11.3 million cars yearly, according to data from the Maryland Transportation Authority.
There are two parallel bridge structures that span 0.74 miles each and transport traffic over Bear Creek near the Bethlehem Steel Sparrows Point factory, as well as a dual-span drawbridge that spans 0.64 miles over Curtis Creek.
Following the event, the Maryland Transportation Authority issued a “major traffic alert” and directed drivers to use the I-95 or I-895 freeways. The I-95 tunnel path that goes beneath Baltimore Harbor is off-limits to trucks.
Ship departures from the Port of Baltimore have ceased as a result of the bridge collapse, sources in the shipping and insurance industries have said. As a result, it was claimed that over 40 ships—including tugboats, small cargo ships, and pleasure craft—were stuck inside the Baltimore harbor. Furthermore, at least thirty other ships had Baltimore port marked as their destination, according to data from ship tracking and marine analytics service MarineTraffic.