Without reading 500 posts, I’ll just copy what I wrote elsewhere…
local here. I’m about a half hour away. Didn’t know about this until this morning. 6:30 I heard radio guys talking as if something closed the bridge. Didn’t think much of it. Then wake up later 9:30 hear a ship hit the Key and brought it down.
First off, enough with the 2nd-guessing the engineering, etc. I was an engineer, though not civil, just mechanical. Simply speaking you can only design for so much. World Trade Center wasn’t designed for large airplanes full of fuel deliberately charging for it. The piers are a “key” structure for a bridge. Bring it down and likely the whole thing comes down. Who cares about the timing? This was a truss bridge, not a suspension. Either way, the manner it is designed, supported, and hit with what huge thing can affect how quickly it all falls. There are so many factors. Why call everyone into doubt?
Terrorism? No way. Just a huge ship, not at all uncommon here, losing its way and having massive momentum, and exerting massive force when it hits.
The film comes from several points which film in that direction. I can’t remember if they said Ft. Smallwood or Ft. Armistead. There is also supposed to be helicopter footage. I think you can see it going by just before the collapse.
As far as cars - when I saw the full wide angle, it did not look like any passing cars were even on the end of the bridge at the exact time it collapsed. Plenty before that, and the vehicles there were likely the work trucks as I heard about crew being on it and thus the workers who walked out of the water. There have been reports that somehow people were trying to stop traffic from getting on. Apparently JUST in time, because the few seconds before it struck zero moving cars were on it. So likelY indeed only workers were involved, of which now they say are 8.
All I had heard early this morning was that the bridge was closed….thought maybe an accident or some other safety inspection closed it. But they were right, this is going to mess up some traffic for a long time. Key bridge is part of the beltway. Went over it on the “Trump Train” back in 2020.
My biggest question would be, why do we rely so much on electrical? Or did the mechanical actually fail and thus the electrical went out? I don’t know how some of these modern ships are built. I’d imagine the engines usually create the electrical, but maybe just battery banks that have generators to re-stock them. If it was really 1 screw (someone mentioned this) and it really ran on electric, that may not be enough redundancy.
Good summary of the whole event.
I was listening to the radio while running some errands. The news said the ship sent out a mayday and the bridge had some kind of warning system to notify drivers to not cross..
Thanks for the update. I also live nearby but rarely use the bridge.
I’m glad to hear they stopped traffic and that some tradesmen survived.
It does look like just a tragic accident.
Now we get to see sheer government incompetence on display.