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Baltimore’s Tragedy :- Early Tuesday morning, a big bridge in Baltimore fell down when a cargo ship crashed into it around 1:30 a.m. As a result, at least eight workers who were on the bridge fell into the water when a big part of it collapsed into the Patapsco River. By Tuesday evening, authorities said they believed six of those workers had died. They stopped looking for survivors and started focusing on finding the bodies. The cargo ship lost power right before hitting the Francis Scott Key Bridge, according to Maryland Governor Wes Moore at a press conference.
Key updates
- Ship’s pilot tried to slow the vessel as it veered toward bridge, trade association says
- Rescue operation ends with six presumed dead
- Baltimore community gathers for vigil honoring bridge collapse victims
The ship that caused the bridge to collapse is called the Dali, and it’s a big ship from Singapore that’s about 985 feet long. The National Transportation Safety Board is looking into why the bridge collapsed. Officials think the ship accidentally crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which connects Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties. They say it wasn’t a terrorist attack.
The governor said it’s an emergency situation, so he declared a state of emergency. The mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott, announced that the city is following its emergency plan. They’ve stopped ships from going in and out of the Port of Baltimore for now.
Key Bridge: Baltimore’s Iconic Engineering Marvel of the 1970s
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“The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore fell into the Patapsco River on Tuesday after a big ship crashed into it. This bridge is special because it was built in the 1970s and was thought to be an amazing engineering achievement. Let’s learn more about this bridge, which is 47 years old, its story, and why it’s important.”
Where is the Francis Scott Key Bridge?
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“The Key Bridge in Baltimore is 1.6 miles long and goes over the Patapsco River, connecting Baltimore’s Inner Harbor to the Chesapeake Bay. It’s an important part of Interstate 695, which helps cars travel around Baltimore. The bridge has four lanes, with two going in each direction, and there’s a concrete divider in the middle.
The Maryland Transportation Authority says the bridge is part of a network of crossings that make it easy for people to get around locally and between states.
Baltimore’s Key Bridge is one of two bridges in the D.C. metro area named after Francis Scott Key, who wrote ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ The other bridge goes over the Potomac River, linking Georgetown in Washington to Rosslyn in Arlington, Virginia.”
When was the Francis Scott Key Bridge built?
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“The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore started being built in 1972 and was finished on March 23, 1977. It was made because the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel couldn’t handle all the traffic anymore, and it cost over $60 million to build, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA).
Building this four-lane bridge was a big deal for Maryland’s transportation plans, and people thought it was a great engineering achievement, according to Preservation Maryland, a group that protects historical places. The American Society of Civil Engineers said it was one of the longest continuous-truss bridges in the U.S.
The toll money from the bridge was more than $56 million in 2023, according to the MDTA.”
What is the historical significance of the bridge?
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The Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) says that Francis Scott Key likely saw British ships attacking Fort McHenry near where the bridge is now during the Battle of Baltimore in September 1814. This event inspired him to write a poem called “Defense of Fort McHenry,” which was later renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner.” In 1931, this poem officially became the national anthem of the United States.
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