The heartbreaking collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge has devastated many individuals across the country. Today, a video surfaced showcasing dispatchers rushing to stop traffic on the Baltimore bridge before it inevitably collapsed.
In this shocking footage, you can hear authorities communicating to “hold all traffic” on the bridge.
“There’s a ship approaching that’s just lost their steering,” one man said. “So until we get that under control, we got to stop all traffic.”
As the video progresses, you see the bridge completely fall after being struck by the ship — within seconds.
“The whole bridge just fell down,” you can hear someone say in the video. “Do we know if all traffic was stopped?”
The footage is bone-chilling, and experts believe it will potentially take years to clean up the destruction and rebuild the bridge. In fact, the original bridge took around five years to complete. Not only that, but it will likely be an expensive feat.
In an article by ABC News, “We don’t have dollar estimates yet, but we actually have provisions that allow us to begin releasing funding even while that is being determined,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “My understanding is as we speak this afternoon, an emergency relief funding request has come in from the Maryland state [transportation department]. We’ll be processing that immediately to start getting them what they need.”
Baltimore Bridge Mayday Call
Despite the “mayday” call stopping traffic, eight construction workers fell into the river as the bridge crumbled. Two were recovered and saved, but four remain missing and are presumed dead.
According to USA Today, “Authorities were searching Wednesday for the bodies of six construction workers who were on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore when it was struck by a cargo ship and collapsed into the Patapsco River. The Dali, a Singapore-flagged cargo vessel, lost power early Tuesday before colliding with a support column of the bridge, the second-longest continuous truss bridge span in the world, officials said.”
The cargo vessel involved in this incident was 985 feet long and departed from Baltimore Harbor toward Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, the Coast Guard has since ended their search for the missing workers.