the collapse of the Francis Scott Key
bridge in Baltimore on March 26th 2024
left everyone in shock as the mega
container ship dially lost power while
leaving port and crashed into one of the
Bridge's pillars Bringing Down the
entire continuous truss span of this
Baltimore Bridge we are Maryland
tough and we are Baltimore strong the
Key Bridge was a critical throughway
Bridge connecting the north side of
Baltimore to the South Side along the I
695 Highway as part of the Baltimore
beltway the collapse of the Francis
Scott Key bridge also closed off access
to the port now several ships are
trapped inside the port and they can't
go anywhere until they clean out that
opening of the port and then there's
ships that are stuck outside the port
over here that can't get into the port
and they're all going to be stranded for
God knows how long how many days or even
weeks so today we're going to examine
videos of the claps and I'm going to
walk you through it and show you more of
what's going on than you probably saw on
the media because they usually show you
just like right when it happened I'm
going to show you what was leading up to
it and how it happened and I want to
show you deficiencies in the design of
this bridge that may have also helped
lead to this collapse so you know I sort
of have some of my own suspicions here
now I'm not a conspiracy theorist I
don't believe in conspiracy theories I
do everything based on facts but I am
still a little bit suspicious about
something here and I know what you're
saying come on Jee you're just being
overly suspicious here you've got
nothing to be suspicious about I get
paid to be suspicious when I got nothing
to be suspicious about but I suspect
here that the collapse of this Francis
Scott Key bridge here is not entirely
the fault of the boat and I'm going to
show you that here now take a look at
the bow here look how it's just torn
apart on the front there looks like a
big gouge was taken out of it it'll be a
miracle if this boat would ever be
usable again we're also going to look at
all the questions that we may be
thinking about hey what what about
protection on the bridge how is a boat
able to just crash right into that
pillar and take the whole Bridge down
like that when I first woke up and saw
this video from the news I was thinking
this before the bridge even hit the
water how so now when I go here to
marinetraffic.com and I zoom into the
Baltimore area here's the Patapsco River
here's the port back over here and as we
zoom in they're still showing the boat
right there there gives the name and
everything Dolly position received a
minute ago
so when I use the pass track feature it
shows where it left so you can see the
boat was facing this way here and this
is the track that it took when it left
the harbor it turned around here but
remember that video kind of shows that
it was without power somewhere around
here and then the lights came back on
again momentarily right before it hit
the bridge so I'll see if I can animate
it here cuz I don't have the
professional plan here on marine traffic
so there it is leaving the port and it
turns around and it's coming now watch
as it veers off a little bit see boom
right at the end there so somewhere
around here is where it must have lost
its power going at about eight knots and
then it just veered off course right
there and again I don't have the paid
plan so it cannot show me all of the
names of the vessels around it here and
it's getting further and further off
course I'm going to jump ahead just a
frog
[Music]
here all right so far it's been about 3
minutes based on my estimation where it
got off course about back here so let's
see how much longer until it hits the
bridge so it looks like they had maybe 4
minutes or so yeah so it looks like
about 3 and 1/2 minutes or so was all
the notice that they had and now I have
a more thorough video here for you than
what they showed on the news and I'm
going to show you step by step
everything that was going on here so let
me start the action here and here's the
bridge you can see the traffic going
across it this green lights right here
this represents the center of the
shipping channel so the boats have to
aim right through the center of the
shipping channel right here all you got
to do is point your bow and head
straight through it I mean even Stockton
Rush could handle that they with those
little PlayStation
controller but here's the boat
approaching over here on the left and
it's pretty nerve-wracking to see that
oh this car is coming and you think oh
it's going to happen any second now but
this boat is actually about 4 minutes
away right now so let's see what's going
on everything looks fine on the boat all
the lights are on at this point and
there's still traffic going over and you
see these yellow flashing lights these
are the vehicles here from the
construction company that was there with
the some reports said that they had
about eight employees there working on
the bridge in this point they were
repairing potholes so here I were at
about 12430 and somewhere around here is
where it's going to lose power right
there see it just went all black right
there so it's got no power right now and
they're probably panicking cuz that's
every Pilot's worst nightmare is you
have no power no steering and by now
they're probably on the phone calling
Mayday and they're calling to the
whoever the authorities to get the
bridge shut down so I'm going to Overlay
the audio that I found from the
emergency dispatch and notice there's no
smoke coming out yet and the call
probably would have come in right around
here I would imagine at this
point I need one of you guys on the
South Side one of you guys on the North
side hold all traffic on the Key Bridge
uh there's a ship approaching it just
lost their steering so until you get
that under control we got to stop all
traffic for all I'm R to the South
Side so remember it's been about a
minute now they've had no power for
approximately coming up on a minute or
so right see how they're slowly coming
on as the emergency backup generator
kicks in cuz it's required by
International Marine law that all boats
have to have the backup
generator uh I'm holding traffic now I
was dragging but we stopped prior to the
bridge so I'll have all out out ofly
traffic
stopped half is there a crew working on
the bridge right
now all right so assuming it's back on
but we don't know if the engine has
propulsion or anything and I can see a
little bit of a turn to the right we
stop traffic on this site right
now yeah if we can stop traffic just
make sure no one's on the bridge right
now I'm not sure where uh there's a crew
out there so we're still 2 minutes away
and the police are scrambling right now
to close the other end of the bridge
looks like they haven't done it yet cuz
there's still cars coming across here's
a truck right here and but look at the
smoke that is now pouring out of the
back of the boat might want to notify
whoever the foreman is see if we can get
them the bridge temp 10 once the other
unit gets here I'll right up on the
bridge all and now you can see it's
turning more and more towards the pillar
traffic stop at this
time once you get here I'll go grab the
uh workers on the Key Bridge and then
stop the outo we are now about 90
seconds away from contact with the
bridge so this guy is one of the
luckiest guys in Baltimore right now he
probably doesn't doesn't even know
it but I wonder if the ship was blasting
their horn and I wonder if any of the
drivers on there could have heard it so
at this point now it looks like the boat
has just headed
straight for us it's coming right
towards this pillar I mean how
unfortunate of all places for it to lose
power if it had just waited another
couple of minutes before it lost power
this is just like the Titanic had the
Titanic turned just a couple of seconds
earlier they would have missed the
iceberg the these are the last two
vehicles that went across the bridge so
by now the police have closed off the
other end of the bridge here and you
notice there's no traffic coming this
way either so they must have closed off
the South Side quicker these two guys
are the luckiest two people in Baltimore
right now because virtually 30 seconds
later after Crossing this bridge safely
it's going to
collapse keep in mind the construction
vehicles are still sitting right
here so the police were supposed to get
up there to talk to them but I I guess
they just haven't gotten there in
time so right around and now in the next
5 or 10 seconds you're going to see the
ship
strike the pillars right
here right there boom see there's all
the water spraying up and it's hit the
concrete the concrete is sort of still
okay but right there it's collapsing
see and down comes the entire Bridge
so now let me add the rest of the other
audio dispatch that we found as well see
through team dispatch the whole Bridge
just fell down start start whoever
everybody the whole Bridge just
collapsed simp this match is that's
correct this
time do we know all traffic or stop I
can't get to the other side so the
bridge is is
down we're going to have to get somebody
on the other side an County MSP to get
up here and stop traffic coming
Northbound on the T
Bridge C13 I'm holding all traffic
northbound six Communications are you
advising there's 13 people in the water
possibly 13 people in the water at this
time a construction crew
okay let's go ahead and special call
Baltimore County Marine unit 269
and Marine unit
2116 notify ano County to also stand by
for their boat now here's just a few
seconds of the Fire Department
dispatch unit responding on Rescue alarm
I 695 be advised the entire Key Bridge
has now collapsed into the water the
entire Key Bridge has now collapsed into
the water proceed with caution it's
152
un responding us to alarm Key Bridge no
units access the Key Bridge I repeat no
units access the Key Bridge 159 and by
the way extra kudos to that Harbor pilot
or whoever it was that picked up the
phone they kept their cool during the
emergency and they knew to call out that
Mayday and have the bridge closed if
these guys had picked up that phone just
30 seconds later those two cars would be
in the bottom of that river right now so
this bridge collapse in Baltimore has
too many similarities to another
high-profile bridge collapse that
happened in Florida when I was a a
teenager in high school so I am of
course referring to the 1980 collapse of
the Florida Sunshine Skyway Bridge over
Tampa Bay so under very similar
circumstances after being hit by a
frighter boom Bridge collapsed and like
35 people died and it seems to me folks
that the major lessons from that bridge
collapse were not learned here and were
not translated up into Baltimore and I
think that the ports all around the
country maybe even the world should take
a second look at all of their Bridges
and what sort of protection they have so
mark my words folks I think you're going
to start to see here families of the
victims here are going to be suing
anybody and everybody from the Port
Authorities to the probably the mdod who
knows everything every everybody that in
the way there because I think the
investigation's going to start pointing
fingers that somehow along the way the
pillars of this bridge should have been
protected with these big concrete
Dolphins okay so this is specifically
what I'm talking about here is the
Sunshine Skyway Bridge here this is the
old one and here's where it collapsed
and then this is the new one that they
built in its place and as you can see
here these are not oil tanks these are
concrete dolphins and these are put here
specifically as large bumpers to protect
these Columns of the bridge here in case
any ships should come and run into them
so here like these two will protect the
two main towers and then they have like
a little Beach head sort of a bumper
here around the towers that it looks to
me like if a boat was going to crash
into them they would probably just Beach
right here and so I hope they did all
their math and thinking on this one and
made it correct now I found another
great example of a bridge that was well
protected so turning our attention to
Philadelphia for all of our friends up
north there here you have on the
Delaware River many of you probably know
and you've probably traveled on it many
times as the Betsy Ross Bridge but how
many of you know that they
also installed these concrete Dolphins
there too see that so you can see the
Betsy Ross Bridge is a much smaller
Bridge than the multibore bridge but yet
look how much better it's butress here
it's got protection all over the place
for all of their columns and yet you're
telling me Baltimore which is one of the
largest ports in the United States it
brings in more cars from International
markets they Nam the other port in the
US and they didn't have any protection
there it's just mindboggling so I made
up this diagram here to show you based
on the photo of this bridge you can see
there's no concrete Dolphins anywhere
there's absolutely no protection and you
can see even at the bottom here any boat
could come right up here and slim into
these pillars right here and it could
take the whole Bridge down because this
is part of the super structure so you
see a continuous truss Bridge like this
it is a decent design but the one
Achilles tendon of it if you compromise
the super structure here and it starts
to come down the continuous truss
becomes a continuous collapse and it
will just start at one end and go all
the way to the other as I'm going to
show you here in the video okay now
let's look here as the collapse begins
to initiate right here look at the far
right of the bridge you'll see it just
lightly lift up a little bit and set
back down and now you can see the truss
is collapsing from left to right and
it's going to tear right here at this
big second tower but watch the right
hand side so as soon as it tears off
there on the left you'll see the right
hand part of the bridge is dip down like
a seesaw cuz there's your full crumb
right here in the middle and then once
it gets down to enough of an angle and
and and the contacts get sheared off now
you're going to see it just slide down
into the water so in my opinion this
bridge collapse up in Baltimore could
have been avoided it just seems like
they didn't learn any lessons from past
collisions so anybody that we lost in
this accident you know that didn't have
to be they would still be here today or
maybe if the power had failed maybe 3
minutes sooner on that boat and the cops
would have had more time to get up to
where the construction workers were they
could have warned them to get off the
bridge okay now another thing that I
have a problem with too is why is that
channel so narrow the space between
those two sets of pillars across that
main trust portion of the bridge why is
that so small so what I did was I set it
up here and compared it to the Golden
Gate Bridge up top and this is the
Francis Scott keybridge I tried to make
it somewhat to scale so it should be
fairly close but you can see the reports
that I've seen said 1,200 ft distance
between these and that I don't think is
enough it just seems way too narrow why
couldn't they have made it bigger maybe
just done a suspension bridge there cuz
if you look at the Golden Gate Bridge
that's 1280 M from the North Tower to
the South Tower and by the way this is
land that they have drawn here this is
incorrect because there's actually water
on both sides of the towers too but
anyway but you can see the the distance
is 1280 M which is about 4100 ft a much
much larger distance I'm not saying you
need to go that high can you imagine if
we just had maybe doubled the distance
that we had instead of it going between
these two pillars what if they had just
going between this one and way over here
that would have given them a lot more
margin of error so we go over here to
equasis where you can look up
information on different boats and we
pull up the dolly right there and you
got ship info there's all sorts of
overview that it gives you management
detail whatever classifications
information but I want to see
inspections cuz I want to see where they
failed inspection and the first one that
I know of was when they were in the port
of Chile at San Antonio now that's not
San Antonio Texas that is San Antonio
Chile and this was June 27th of last
year 2023 uh there was nothing here on
these inspections but this one I think
the initial inspection was it this one
yeah they found one deficiency see that
number of deficiencies so if we go to
look at what the deficiencies are per
category it says right here propulsion
and auxiliary Machinery the deficiency
was the gauges thermometers
Etc and there was one deficiency so they
weren't very clear there's nothing else
that elaborates what was wrong does it
mean that they have gauges and
thermometers that were not working or
did they have gauges and thermometers
that were missing so this part here at
least we don't really know so let's go
back to inspections and I want to go
back I know there was something in 2016
on this boat cuz I sech through a lot of
these already and if you go back to 2016
right here see where it says Belgium in
antp November 7th 2016 there's a more
detailed inspection so that peaked my
interest when I saw that and there was a
deficiency here and this was when it
they had an accident with it and it ran
into something when it was coming into
port and there it was later ruled as an
error on the master SL pilot of the boat
but here is the deficiencies it says
structural conditions Hall damage and
impairing the seaworthiness defect hold
so I guess it means it was a big hole
somewhere so we don't know if this may
have caused some latent damage later on
that maybe led to the ship losing power
we simply don't know now here's some
video from that 2016 accident in antp
where you can see the dolly had
accidentally backed up into the concrete
wall at the dock there and
so you wonder how the pilot could make a
mistake like that when he's supposed to
be the local expert and knows how
everything is supposed to work there
it's in perfect weather there was no
storms or anything so hard to figure out
what was going on and again we don't
know if it caused any latent damage to
any of the equipment or the engine or
anything that may have played a role in
the collapse here in
2024 of the Francis Scott keybridge up
in Baltimore okay now you probably knew
this was coming what about the Golden
Gate Bridge I'm concerned about that
bridge the Golden Gate Bridge Bridge in
San Francisco doesn't have Dolphins hey
but it does have whales check this one
out if you look there's not much
protection at the North and South Towers
at the base there's some concrete there
but I don't think it would withstand a
major container ship colliding with it
in fact here's one of the best pictures
I've ever taken in my life when I was in
San Francisco of the Golden Gate Bridge
and to get it on a crystal clear day
like this was incredible it was June
21st 1997 the longest day of the year
and I took this picture with a
Hasselblad camera and a slide film 2 and
1/4 in x 2 and 1/4 in frame no light
meter I just guessed the exposure and
got it right I'm going to continue to
monitor everything here for you on the
Francis Scott Key bridge collapse and in
the meantime you can check this video
out right here which is on the FIU
bridge collapse that was one of my best
engineering videos yet so thank you so
much for tuning in again today and stay
tuned for the next one and we'll see you
on that next one