Major bridge collapse in Baltimore

But did the captain get the vax?

 

I'm not an expert in physics, or logistics or anything honestly but looking at the live video feed from a helicopter on the Fox 43 news facebook page, this ship looks insanely overloaded. Like, if you were to do this to your car and drive down the Turnpike, someone would probably report you. That said, I'm sure its within the legal requirements, and maybe that is the issue.

 

I was in high school when the Sunshine Skyway was hit. A year or so later, we were on vacation and were on the bridge - both directions were on one span. As you climbed to the top, the other span wasn't there - nothing but sky. It was scary as hell. I'm glad I wasn't driving.

I'm hoping that here in Detroit, this prompts a closer look at the privately owned Ambassador Bridge, which is nearly 100 years old, and the construction on the publicly owned Gordie Howe International Bridge, which is scheduled to open next year, speeds up. If anything happens to the Ambassador Bridge now, southeastern Michigan and southwestern Ontario would be so screwed. It's, I believe, the No. 1 international border crossing for cargo.

When the new bridge opens, it'll be nice for truckers because the Canadian government is extending the 401 to the bridge, which will connect with I-75 in Detroit. I was on I-75 on Saturday and both sides of the Howe bridge are almost connected. I-75, though, is a mess in southwest Detroit because of the related construction.

 

As I said, the new bridge opened fairly recently, but it’s just as steep. It is four lanes instead of two, and has a median now, but still. I drove over it not long ago and it didn’t feel much different:

 

For the record:

Mass X Velocity = Momentum.​

Physics class dismissed...

 

Good analysis here. Short version. Ship lost power. Ship regains power but is drifting out of the channel toward the support pylon. Ship is in reverse and has at least one anchor down, but that much tonnage under momentum is basically impossible to stop quickly. It appears that the best thing that the captain could have done once power was regained was to do nothing and let momentum carry them down the channel... but I'm not sure any captain could have made that analysis quickly enough to to hold off on giving the commands that leapt to mind, to steer and attempt to stop.

 

Somebody's going to really enjoy the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

 

No, but Maria Bartiromo is grasping at straws to try to connect it to the Mexican border.

 

A fuckton

 

Spent a week at Isle of Palms twice (great place, BTW). There's a bridge on the way from the airport to IOP that scared the crap out of me every time we crossed it. So did the Tappan Zee.

The 395 bridge over the Columbia between Oregon and Washington isn't fun, either. Nor is the second Columbia bridge in the Tri-Cities.

As a kid I had a major fear of crossing big bridges.