Questions On The Bridge Collapse

By Tim Beevors

There has been a lot of talk about the ship running into the bridge in Baltimore.

I’m not sure people realize how important that bridge is/was — and the fact that it’s not being reported is concerning.

The port there is massive. It exports a variety of goods, including automobiles, machinery, electronics, chemicals, agricultural products, and raw materials such as coal and iron ore.

25% of US coal exports – and balk commodities go through there.

The bridge itself is the second busiest strategic roadway in the nation for hazardous material movement.

It was designed to move fuel, diesel, propane gas, nitrogen, and chemicals that can not go in tunnels.

This will have a tremendous impact on the US economy.

Also, the load-bearing pylons sit at each end, supporting the whole structure as anchors, so the exact point it hit was the integrity of the bridge.

804m of a 6 lane bridge is now in the river.

All that has to be removed before you can open the port up, let alone build a new bridge.

They’ll work around it all – but this is a huge logistical problem to clean up.

If any of my information is inaccurate – I’m taking it from various guestimation sources – but the map below sort of shows what’s logical below.