Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed on Tuesday morning after it was struck by what appeared to be a large cargo ship.
A video of the incident was posted early on Tuesday morning to X, formerly Twitter. In the video, a large vessel was seen colliding with one of the bridge’s support beams. Smoke was seen billowing from the vessel before the bridge began crumbling.
A petty officer first class for the Coast Guard in Baltimore named Matthew West confirmed the crash to The New York Times.
BI also viewed a YouTube livestream of the bridge, which showed a large vessel making contact with the bridge at around 1:28 a.m. local time.
The livestream view of the area at around 3:00 a.m. local time showed the bridge’s structure partially submerged in the harbor and in several pieces.
BI also viewed a vessel tracking map of the area on the ship monitoring site VesselFinder.com. At 2:50 a.m. local time, the Dali, a Singapore-flagged container ship, was seen remaining stationary under the bridge.
Several vessels marked as Coast Guard search and rescue vessels were seen moving toward the ship on the VesselFinder.com map, with one stationed next to the ship as of 3:03 a.m., local time.
Screengrab/VesselFinder.com
Emergency services teams, including divers and at least two helicopters, responded to the scene, per Baltimore County’s police scanner in the hour and a half after the bridge’s collapse.
It is unclear if any vehicles were traveling along the bridge during the collapse. Representatives for the Maryland Transportation Authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
“All lanes closed both directions for incident on I-695 Key Bridge. Traffic is being detoured,” the Maryland Transportation Authority said in an X post on Tuesday morning.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge opened in March 1977 as the final link in the Baltimore Beltway, according to the MDTA. It cost $60.3 million to build and is 10.9 miles long, per the MDTA.
