Baltimore Bridge Collapse

[Silas Loom]

I'll take a bet on the second, what odds are you offering?

Not terribly generous ones.

 

[ginger_syn]

Just saw the news ,that is terrifying ,those poor people on the bridge,that water is freezing so quite a short survival time.

 

[Crispy]

Bridge went down in seconds.

Surely ships should never have been allowed anywhere near it if it was that easy to collapse.

Or some sort of defences mounted around supporting pillars.

Terrorists will be looking at this and thinking hmmm we could do this somewhere else.

There was a similar disaster in Florida about 20 years ago I think? All bridges built since then have had to include defences. This bridge was older, and there was no legal requirement to retrofit.

 

[Gromit]

There was a similar disaster in Florida about 20 years ago I think? All bridges built since then have had to include defences. This bridge was older, and there was no legal requirement to retrofit.

But a moral one.

America though. Money trumps safety.

 

[Mumbles274]

There was a similar disaster in Florida about 20 years ago I think? All bridges built since then have had to include defences. This bridge was older, and there was no legal requirement to retrofit.

Florida skyway bridge. There was also a train bridge that got struck many years ago causing a passenger train to plunge into the bayou

 

[WouldBe]

Given the span of the bridge I don't know why it was so close to the pier to start with.

On the BBC news the same ship has previously collided with a dock in Amsterdam.

 

[Dogsauce]

Meanwhile, in Dunceland:

 

[Mumbles274]

Meanwhile, in Dunceland:

View attachment 417380

As night follows day

 

[Elpenor]

Meanwhile, in Dunceland:

View attachment 417380

Maybe he watched Leave The World Behind last night

 

[likesfish]

engine failure at just the wrong moment not sure what sort of defences can slow up a huge container ship.

 

[tonysingh]

Doesn't it take something like 2 or 3 miles for a ship that size to totally stop? It was pretty much gonna hit the bridge no matter what as soon as power went

 

[Sasaferrato]

Bridge went down in seconds.

Surely ships should never have been allowed anywhere near it if it was that easy to collapse.

Or some sort of defences mounted around supporting pillars.

Terrorists will be looking at this and thinking hmmm we could do this somewhere else.

Bringing down even a large bridge is ridiculously easy. With many bridges, such as the Forth Crossing, blowing the cables will bring down the structure. The cut cables will automatically 'whip' into the towers, and the structure will collapse.

Fifty pounds of gelignite per cable should suffice, and there is a quarry with a magazine just a few miles away...

 

[Indeliblelink]

Press conference

Governor Moore says the ship was moving towards the bridge at a "very rapid speed".

He said crews called a "mayday' - an emergency signal - but the vessel's speed appeared to be too fast to avoid the incident.

However, he said the distress call did ensure more cars were stopped from crossing the bridge, averting greater disaster.

"These people are heroes," he said. "They saved lives last night."

-

Six people are unaccounted for, officials tell reporters. This is down from a previous report of seven.

Two other people were found - one was taken to hospital, and the other was uninjured.

The state transportation secretary says the six are believed to be part of the construction crew that was working on the bridge [fixing potholes] at the time it collapsed.

He adds that officials do not believe there is anyone missing that was in a vehicle when the span fell.

 

[mojo pixy]

Human error maybe.

This does not exist in conspiracyland, cannot be the answer. More research needed.

 

[skyscraper101]

Look at the ship’s hull in these photos, the front starboard side is almost completely sliced through. Imagine the force needed to do that to a container vessel. Incredible that it’s still afloat.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Bringing down even a large bridge is ridiculously easy. With many bridges, such as the Forth Crossing, blowing the cables will bring down the structure. The cut cables will automatically 'whip' into the towers, and the structure will collapse.

Fifty pounds of gelignite per cable should suffice, and there is a quarry with a magazine just a few miles away...

You've put a worryingly large amount of thought in to this Sas.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

On the BBC news the same ship has previously collided with a dock in Amsterdam.

Ships fuck up all the time, it's much more common that you may think, I deal with a company that goes out to try and salvage ships that have gone wrong and also provide expert testimony in the inevitable court cases. They are one of my best customers.

pseudonarcissus may have some thoughts on this, if not bobbing around in the middle of the ocean somewhere...

 

[likesfish]

Bringing down even a large bridge is ridiculously easy. With many bridges, such as the Forth Crossing, blowing the cables will bring down the structure. The cut cables will automatically 'whip' into the towers, and the structure will collapse.

Fifty pounds of gelignite per cable should suffice, and there is a quarry with a magazine just a few miles away...

blowing a bridge doesn't take that much explosives if you get to place them got roped into help setting up a dummy reserve demolition once hanging off the bottom of a bridge shoving fake plastic explosive in place. our wartime role was to stop Russia Paras seizing the bridge. not exatcly how the Paras were meant to fly through Western German airspace in the middle of ww3!

 

[Sasaferrato]

You've put a worryingly large amount of thought in to this Sas.

I've had a fascination for blowing things up all my life, pretty much.

Ranging from blowing the windows out of the garage when my gunpowder went a bit wrong, to getting 'buried' in a culvert after firing 400 lbs of gelignite in a rock cutting.

My only two convictions were under (IIRC) the 1886 Explosives Act.

 

[cupid_stunt]

I've had a fascination for blowing things up all my life, pretty much.

Ranging from blowing the windows out of the garage when my gunpowder went a bit wrong, to getting 'buried' in a culvert after firing 400 lbs of gelignite in a rock cutting.

My only two convictions were under (IIRC) the 1886 Explosives Act.

Are you related to dessiato?

 

[Sasaferrato]

blowing a bridge doesn't take that much explosives if you get to place them got roped into help setting up a dummy reserve demolition once hanging off the bottom of a bridge shoving fake plastic explosive in place. our wartime role was to stop Russia Paras seizing the bridge. not exatcly how the Paras were meant to fly through Western German airspace in the middle of ww3!

PE is different to gelignite. With PE you can form shaped charges, and therefore need a lot smaller mass of explosives, there is also the potency to consider, PE is much more powerful than blasting gelignite.

We used Aminol at times, which is basically Ammonium Nitrate, you use it in fissures left by partial failure of the main charge. Stuff Cordtex down the fissure, pack with Aminol, then fire the Cordtex. The fumes are horrendous.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Are you related to dessiato?

No, and it probably just as well for the general wellbeing of the populace.

 

[petee]

looks to be on a major trunk road/ring road

it's on 695, one of a few branches of I95 that go through and around Baltimore. I95 = your M1.

 

[planetgeli]

My only two convictions were under (IIRC) the 1886 Explosives Act.

Which had just been passed. Unlucky.

 

[nogojones]

I've had a fascination for blowing things up all my life, pretty much.

Ranging from blowing the windows out of the garage when my gunpowder went a bit wrong, to getting 'buried' in a culvert after firing 400 lbs of gelignite in a rock cutting.

My only two convictions were under (IIRC) the 1886 Explosives Act.

Well, if you weren't before, you're on a watch list now.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Biden is due to start a press conference at 4.30pm.

 

[seeformiles]

Wow, what I find shocking was the last of structural integrity once one support was removed. If it had happened during rush hour we’d be talking 100s if not thousands missing/dead.

 

[Cloo]

God, I see the conspiraloons are hard at it already.

 

[Pickman's model]

I've had a fascination for blowing things up all my life, pretty much.

Ranging from blowing the windows out of the garage when my gunpowder went a bit wrong, to getting 'buried' in a culvert after firing 400 lbs of gelignite in a rock cutting.

My only two convictions were under (IIRC) the 1886 Explosives Act.

yeh so it is to me surprising you were a nurse and not in the royal engineers.

 

[Indeliblelink]

The live cam is here -

you can still rewind to before the incident and watch the whole thing in real time, for the time being [although I think it will dissappear in next 30 mins]
Ship appears on left at 01:23, first power off 01:24, last moving vehicle clears the bridge at 01:27:28 [obviously not the poor workers whose vehicle lights are visible in the central span], impact 01:28:43, collapse seconds later
The camera operator seems to get to work at 9AM and starts zooming and panning around the whole scene at 09:11.

I noticed there's something over the other side that looks rather like a partially sunk boat with a few vessels with emergency lights milling about it.


It does look like there was some sort of ship/boat there before the collapse