THE AMERICA ONE NEWS
Jul 10, 2025  |  
0
 | Remer,MN
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge.
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge and Reasoning Support for Fantasy Sports and Betting Enthusiasts.
back  
topic
Boston Herald
Boston Herald
3 Apr 2024
Annie Jennemann


NextImg:Key Bridge collapse by the numbers: quantifying a tragedy that seems unquantifiable

In the space of seconds, what took four years and $141 million to construct vanished.

Struck by the cargo ship Dali one week ago, the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed into the dark of the Patapsco River.

The size of the catastrophe and the ongoing recovery effort is beyond measure, starting with the loss of six construction workers who had been patching the surface of the bridge.

Working 24/7, it took crews until Sunday to remove the first section of the broken bridge, a portion that weighed 200 tons, “almost as heavy as the Statue of Liberty,” as Gov. Wes Moore said.

“The scale of this project is enormous,” Moore said Monday. “Even the small lifts are huge.”

Here, by the numbers, is an attempt to quantify the unquantifiable.

Height at peak: 185 feet

Length: 1.6 miles

Time to construct: 5 years

Time between impact and collapse: less than 1 minute

Time to build replacement, estimated: 2-15 years

Cost to build: $141 million in the 1970s

Cost to replace, estimated: at least $400 million

    Launched: Dec. 27, 2014

    Sister ship: the Cezanne, which has a different owner, departed Baltimore on March 16, also en route to Sri Lanka

    Crew: 21 men, initially reported as 22, but one had rotated out before the collision

    Number of containers it was carrying: 4,679

      Capacity: 10,000 containers

      How many contain hazardous materials: 56

      How many destroyed on impact: 14

      How many floating in the water: at least 2

      Weight: 95,128 metric tons empty

      Weight leaving Port of Baltimore: 112,383 metric tons

      Value of ship as it left the port: less than $90 million

      Repair cost: at least $28 million

      Salvage cost: at least $19.5 million

      Value currently: about $42.5 million

      Number of Google searches in the U.S. for “Baltimore Bridge” on March 26, 2024: more than 10 million

      Number of views of one video of the bridge collapse (https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1772515766929097088/video/1) posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: 101.6 million as of Monday

      Number of views of a post on X of Baltimore Fire Department unit arriving on scene and saying on radio, “Be advised, the entire bridge, the entire Key Bridge is in the harbor” (https://twitter.com/doyle0213/status/1772550665526517790): 150,800 as of Monday

      Number of personnel assisting: 377, as of Friday

      Pieces of equipment, includes:

      – 10 tugboats

      – 9 barges

      – 8 cranes

      Largest crane: Chesapeake 1000, capable of lifting 1,000 short tons (2 million pounds)

        Sources: The Baltimore Sun, The Associated Press, Donjon Marine Co. Inc., Key Bridge Response 2024 Unified Command, National Transportation Safety Board, Petition to limit liability filed by owner and manager of the Dali, office of Maryland Gov. Wes Moore

        Baltimore Sun reporters Darcy Costello, Hayes Gardner, Maya Lora and Lia Russell contributed to this article.