In just moments, what took four years and $141 million to build disappeared.
Hit by the cargo ship Dali one week ago, the Francis Scott Key Bridge fell into the dark of the Patapsco River.
The extent of the disaster and the ongoing recovery effort is immeasurable, beginning with the death of six construction workers who had been fixing the bridge's surface.
Crews worked around the clock and it took them until Sunday to remove the first part of the broken bridge, a section that weighed 200 tons, “almost as heavy as the Statue of Liberty,” according to Gov. Wes Moore.
“The scope of this project is immense,” Moore stated on Monday. “Even the small lifts are huge.”
Here, we will attempt to measure the immeasurable using numbers.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge, March 23, 1977 – March 26, 2024
Highest point: 185 feet
Length: 1.6 miles
Construction time: 5 years
Time between impact and collapse: less than 1 minute
Estimated time to build replacement: 2-15 years
Construction cost: $141 million in the 1970s
Estimated cost to replace: at least $400 million
The Dali
Began: Dec. 27, 2014
Related ship: the Cezanne, owned by a different owner, left Baltimore on March 16, also headed to Sri Lanka
Crew: 21 men, initially reported as 22, but one had rotated out before the collision
Number of containers it was carrying: 4,679
Capacity: 10,000 containers
Number of containers with hazardous materials: 56
Number destroyed on impact: 14
Number afloat in the water: at least 2
Weight: 95,128 metric tons empty
Weight leaving Port of Baltimore: 112,383 metric tons
Value of ship as it left the port: less than $90 million
Cost to repair: at least $28 million
Salvage cost: at least $19.5 million
Current value: about $42.5 million
The response
Number of Google searches in the U.S. for “Baltimore Bridge” on March 26, 2024: more than 10 million
Views of a video of the bridge collapse on X, formerly known as Twitter: 101.6 million as of Mondayhttps://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1772515766929097088/video/1Number of views of a post on X of Baltimore Fire Department unit arriving on scene and saying on radio, “Be advised, the entire bridge, the entire Key Bridge is in the harbor” on X: 150,800 as of Monday
https://twitter.com/doyle0213/status/1772550665526517790The recoveryNumber of personnel assisting: 377, as of Friday
Pieces of equipment, includes:
– 10 tugboats
Largest crane: Chesapeake 1000, capable of lifting 1,000 short tons (2 million pounds)
Sources: The Baltimore Sun, The Associated Press, Donjon Marine Co. Inc., Key Bridge Response 2024 Unified Command, National Transportation Safety Board, Petition to limit liability filed by owner and manager of the Dali, office of Maryland Gov. Wes Moore
– 9 barges
– 8 cranes
Baltimore Sun reporters Darcy Costello, Hayes Gardner, Maya Lora and Lia Russell contributed to this article.
The enormity of the Key Bridge catastrophe and the recovery effort is immeasurable, starting with the loss of six construction workers.
Baltimore Sun reporters Darcy Costello, Hayes Gardner, Maya Lora and Lia Russell contributed to this article.
