NBC Special Report on bridge collapse in Baltimore

As a prof. civil engineer, some of y’all in the comments are making my head hurt with your ignorant comments. Bridges are designed to withstand weather events, seismic activity, traffic loads, etc. A gigantic steel container ship plowing through it and collapsing the bridge does not necessarily indicate a flawed design or poor maintenance like some of you are stating as fact. An enormous steel ship will almost always win against bridge supports. You guys act as if the bridge just collapsed on its own. Your comments are like a homeowner complaining that his house was designed horribly after a category 5 tornado destroys it! Or like saying the Twin Towers were poorly constructed after an unprecedented never before seen event occurs like two massive commercial jets flying directly into them at 600 mph.

Heartbreaking😢😢😢 for the people who were on that bridge at that moment. Condolences to the families🙏🙏🙏

A mile and half bridge? Oh my heart. Holding all victims and their families in my heart

Prayers up for the citizens of Baltimore 🙏

God bless the people of Baltimore and our brave first responders.

This is so heart breaking.

If NBC would show the prior 4 minutes, almost everyone would gain a much better understanding of what happened.
The ship loses electric power and then regains it prior to hitting the bridge.
Go look at the What's Going on with Shipping video to get a much greater understanding of what happened. Great analysis!!!

Sending prayers to everyone

Bodies do not decompose until close to 50° water temps. They’ll probably need to do sun-surface diving to find lost people. Hopefully the current doesn’t take any victims too far. Good luck and be safe to all the rescue workers in the water.

The video is unreal to watch. I cannot imagine what that would feel like driving across the bridge and suddenly you see the bridge collapsing in front of you and than your car / truck starts to fall into the water. And unless you are prepared for it getting your windows down isn't something you'll think of right away. How frightening that has to be. And the fact this happened at 1:30am - totally dark. I pray for the souls who are lost by this collapse. It was built in 1977 so I'm not sure how so much of it fell apart so quickly from hitting one footing. Just thank god this didnt happen during rush hour closer to 6am when it's still somewhat dark and the bridge would be loaded with people.
Keeping the victims and their families in my thoughts and prayers today 🙏😪
Based on other comments I've been reading, this is now going to bring out all of the "Captain Hindsight's" who will tell us about all of the things that were neglected during the building of the bridge.

I've been Praying all day for the City of Baltimore! Remain Positive! I was touched when the Baltimore Orioles Baseball team and their Football Friends the Baltimore Ravens told the city to stand Together! Be Brave Baltimore!!

Do people commenting hear themselves ? A STEEL SHIP HIT A "SUPPORT" BEAM FOR THE BRIDGE.
My gosh think before you speak. Pray for survivors 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

the video looked like a whole bridge collapse, went down like dominos...

Newfoundland sends prayers to all the people affected by the bridge collapse ❤ may God be with you and your loved ones.

Praying for those who went into the water. 🙏🙏🙏

Genuine intrusive thoughts every time I'm on a bridge😢 Nightmare

Oh God, how awful. I will keep everyone in my prayers. Love from me in England.

Did you see the truck driver driving his vehicle over bridge seconds before the bridge collapses. Must be one of the luckiest people on the planet !

Prayers to the construction crew who was working on the bridge at the time this happened. If you look closely I can see there green and amber beacon lights on their vehicles flashing as the bridge collapsed. This is one of my biggest fears smh🙏🏾

The Dali lost power and dropped the port anchor, regained power and the smoke was the ships engine reversing... I am sure we will know more once they debrief the Captain, the Pilot, and the crew

There may have been construction workers? Do you guys not see those yellow flashing lights on the bridge? for sure there were workers on it...

the smoke is from the engines going inti full emergency reverse mode.

What a nightmare!!

Who the hell was stood there with phone in hand ready to record it. Crazy that is isn't nobody asking that question ⁉️

The same thing happened to the Tampa Bay bridge almost 40 years ago

Why hasn't any news report said anything about the 4 vehicles with flashing lights on the right side going down.

A 1000 ft container ship is the heaviest ship their is. Why are they surprised

Prayers for everyone involved.

Those reporters better shut up. They really don't add anything that we can already see for ourselves... Pfff

As a Canadian Medical Officer & from My Team, You are SENT THE BEST !! ~~~ Our Hearts & Feelings are WITH YOU & with ALL THE FAMILIES !!!!!!!

They're saying the cargo ship sank while simultaneously showing video of the ship clearly floating on top of the water.

Reason the whole bridge collasped is because the bridge is linked together. when one of them links breaks the rest falls down like dominos.

Omg 😢sending up tons of prayers of strength for the families, victims and Maryland from Illinois🙏

Maryland has a lot of bridges, New York has some cenyuries old and very suspect. They are the scariest I have ever had to drive on especially when you can see water thrue the holes in the roadwy.

Smoke doesn't necessarily mean problems. Some marine engines chuck a load of it when starting or revving up.

I can hear the ambulance chasers salivating over the lawsuits that will be filed in the aftermath. What a tragedy. Prayers for the victims .

Was the ship ever going to fit under the bridge? Looks like the tide was too high.!

I am praying for all of the lives that are injured or have perished.
Truly the worse tragedy I have ever witnessed in my life time in Maryland.
The shutting down of the Baltimore harbor will cost us Billions of Dollars.
This will deeply affect the the Maryland State economy. It took 5 years just to build the bridge.
I think it will take them years to remove all of the bridge from the bay.
Studying how and where all of the major stresses are and the safest way of removing the bridge.
I would guess 15 years before the bridge is rebuilt or a new one built all together. God Help us all.
We should stand united in our efforts to rebuild.

Oh God, how awful. keeping everyone in my prayers :(

We found a guy whose having a worse week than P Diddy. This guy is definitely going to Prison.

I'm Sorry for Them ALL

Really sad and heartbreaking,
Rest in peace those poor souls.🙏.
And condolences to all victims family and friends involved,

A thorough investigation by the NTSB will determine the cause of this terrible event…. Until then the main focus is on rescue response…. Prayers to those directly and indirectly involved . 🙏

Crazy how 1 cargo ship broke the entire bridge. Not one part collapse, but the entire! Reminded of the one scene from London has fallen when the bridge collapsed and the cars dropped but in that scene, a bomb did the impact. Or even in final destination on the bridge scene, a freak accident but this? A cargo ship. It makes you wonder how unstable everything is that all it took was that. My hearts are with the families and the victims. Just think commuting can be your last day. Can't fathom the fear they all felt on the way down

This is so sad.Praying for all those who are working at finding those who may be alive.Praying for Search teams that have come in to help.Prayers going up.for all those involved.

My prayer's goes out to the families and for others taking part in helping with this disaster.

wasn't just any bridge...
Amajor bridge that collapsed in Baltimore after getting hit by a ship is named for Francis Scott Key, who turned a wartime experience in the early 19th century into the poem that became the national anthem of the United States.
Key was a prominent attorney in the region during the first half of the 19th century. In September 1814, two years after the War of 1812 had started between the United States and the British, he was on a ship to negotiate an American prisoner's release and witnessed a 25-hour British bombardment of Fort McHenry.

That a is complete partial bridge collapse. Are the happy now?! Something for everyone.

Oh my goodness. I hope they recover the people. Hope many swam to safety if they were able to.

They dont use Tug Boats ??? Madness !!!!, and the entire sound used by military ships, brilliant. Saving Money, no rescue boats up or down stream for the workers in case of,,, good thing it wasnt a natural gas ship !!

As a trucker I use to cross that bridge 2 to 3 times a week with a car hauler 10 car hi rail with BMW and Mercedes lol that would have been interesting, anyway Baltimore is shtf now with this bridge out

Those rescue crews used to be called body recovery units until they decided that the name needed changed they changed those names in the 1990’s.

Prayers for all the Victims in Families & for all the first responders involved🙏♥️🙏 Seeing the ship lights go out before hitting the pylon is maybe the reason why it hit, very Sad this Happened.

Funny thing gravity and how it plays out with removing a primary load bearing support and what happens when you do so

A video of this happening in real time. 😮Amazing

This is terrifying, May God make it easy on the families of loved ones lost. So heart breaking, I can’t swim so I can only imagine how that would go.

So are there fatalities? This looks worse than the Skyway bridge in Tampa back in the 80s that came down the same way.

Pete Budajudge is going to make a big difference with his expertise.

So sad I pray that all those involve are okay.

My Prayers 🙏🏿to all those involved my heart truly goes out to y’all what a tragedy that this horrific time has happened….Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Uk 🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿

Prayers for “ALL” affected 🙏🏽.
It’s amazing how the ship just missed hitting THE “DOLPHINS “ that would have stopped the ship making contact with the bridge. Looking at the video the two cars that were able to make it across the bridge before contact were truly blessed, they probably did or didn’t know what was about to happen but I’m so glad they made it across safely. For now on as part of their uniforms when working on or around a bridge a LIFE VEST is mandatory or a uniform that once water hits it, it’ll inflate into a floating device. 🤷🏽‍♀️

This would not have happened if adequate tug boat escorts were required!

🙏🙏🙏🙏

The lights went out 5 minutes before it hit the bridge

I wish they would stop showing the video of the bridge collapsing a thousand times per broadcast every day, Most people don't want to keep seeing people dying and this beautiful structure going down

Golly gosh, I wonder why!

I have a feeling a lot of people are going to question the integrity of of all Maryland Bridges
There was a movie with Sylvester Stallone “Daylight” where he says “nextime we’re taking the bridge”

This much damage SHOULD NOT have happened!!! 1980 Tamp's Sunshine Skyway Bridge on may 9th 1980 SHOWED US THAT this structural failure WAS DISCOVERED ALREADY. ANYONE that passed on the EAST END and possibly other end SHOULD SUE THE STATE!!!! My children's engineering class showed this last year!!!! Container ship hit that bridge and engineering FAILURES caused it to fully collapse.

Anything to screw up the supply chain, control of f supply and demand. Like other people have said, they couldn’t drop anchor???

The most expensive American car was the Excalibur Series 3. 5th largest US car maker of the 70s, full production and the most expensive.

Absolutely sad!!!

What a disaster! Should we be surprised? We are constantly building ships bigger than the planet can support. How much longer until the next disaster?

This is not a good thing. That bridge went down like It was a tinker toy. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the first part start to collapse I never dreamed the whole bridge would go.
One blessing in all of this and that's the fact that it didn't happen during a rush hour with full capacity of vehicles coming and going.
Thank you God for this Mercy.
My prayers for all those who are lost.

🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

Prayers to the people of this accadent

Prayers. For. The. Family

The Port of Los Angeles has worn the title of “Busiest Port in North America” for more than 20 years.

It’s a artery for 695
95 is the tunnel
That would have been devastating

Terrible...what time was the May Day received?

Apparently ship lost power , engines on one side were having issues , they dropped anchor to arrest forward momentum but none of it worked , just a horrible tragedy. She had already left the dock and spun around so there would of been no Tug escort at that point she was fully underway and in the main channel headed outbound. Just a horrible clusterF%ck.

No island of rocks surrounding those bridge supports......PRICELE$$ !

That's the Mayor??

Sendings prayers to all the families

Why didn't the bridge have light indicators..can't just depend on a ship to see a bridges properly in the nights

omg those poor people that were on that bridge when that happened 🙏

Someone tell her to shut up, calm down and let him talk.

Mayor Brandon Scott looks very young!

This happened 3 days ago! Where were your reports then?

no CARS in the river, police had already stopped all the cars from going onto the bridge when they got the mayday, just a few maintenance lorries still on the bridge when it fell.

Lord help us❤

Is only obvious what happened The bridge got hit by the container ship Which caused the collapse..! So sad..! Prayers. 🙏🙏🙏

Hoping for minimal to no victims.
And now, my questions:
1. Should the Baltimore Key bridge have withstood such an impact?
2. As a repair crew was already working on the bridge as the collapse ensued, were repairs to strengthen its structural sufficiency ever delayed or postponed for any reason, including tax cuts or budget cuts?
3. Was the Baltimore Key bridge subject to deferred maintenance?
The collapse of the Baltimore Key Bridge brings to mind the economic dimension. Storms provide cover for the practice of planned obsolescence. At the same time, those who own the means of production in manufacturing and its adjacent sectors might not be ready or more willing to adjust, adapt, and improve, much less transition, to the next level of materials that perform better. So that also slides us into deferred maintenance, where the likes of accountants (“bean counters”) who compare the cost of a fully up to code, state of the art, construction materials, and the conclusion runs something like, “It looks like building a newest model of dam costs more than that of the pain, suffering, loss of life, and overall economic harm if the current infrastructure fails.” And as baby boomers age into retirement and senescence, and turn more fiscally conservative, their support for sufficient revenue enhancements begins to fade, leaving the rest of us with a legacy of deferred maintenance leading to public and private physical plants and infrastructure failing more frequently. This means “your tax cuts at work.”
Authorities give update on rescue efforts after Baltimore Key Bridge collapse

Bridges in General are in need of upgrading or replacing. They are all just old. Infrastructure as well is in need of replacing. Something that cities took for granted over the years

So sad..

Like a real life final destination

If this was a attack then why would they do this at midnight?? I think this was a mistake. A avoidable accident. No communication and no tug boat for escort

1 or 2 spans maybe,,
but the whole bridge ???

Rome still has bridges built 2 thousand years ago.

So was this deliberate? Or just shoddy workmanship when building the bridge in the first place 🤔

The ship lost power you can see the lights went out. Then when it started the router was off but the ship was still moving. The black smoke was when the ship restarted and it hit a piling on the bridge and it collapsed.