Odd that this was never considered, or if it was, a defense was never implemented.
The bridge began construction in ‘72.
It likely was considered and the state cheaped out then and since.
Protective concrete barriers around the main supports? You must be one of those infrastructure nuts. We don’t have money for things like that... we have a Ukraine that needs braces and private school.
How do you defend against a 100,000 ton ship drifting without control? The largest battleship in history, the Yamato, was around 70K tons for comparison. I’ve heard people mention reinforcing the bridge foundations, but I suspect there’s a limit to what can be done at a sane cost against such occurences.
Perhaps that’s something you could ask our Secretary of Transportation.
FL put concrete buttresses around their bridge supports after a similar accident last century. I guess Baltimore was too busy grifting to take care of this.