Witnesses describe horrific Baltimore bridge collapse as six construction workers remain missing: ‘Felt like an earthquake’
A Baltimore resident described how the horrifying collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday morning caused his entire house to feel like it was falling down, as a span of the 1.9-mile bridge crashed into the river.
The man, identified as John, said the impact of the crash at around 1:30 a.m. “sounded like a big bash of thunder.”
“And then, just like I said, it felt like an earthquake — the whole house vibrated like my house was falling down,” he told WJZ.
He said he then heard fire and police crews rush to the scene.
Six people still remain missing after multiple vehicles plunged into the chilly waters of the Patapsco River as the bridge crumbled, its steel arches and roadway tumbling down. The construction workers were repairing potholes on the Francis Scott Key Bridge overnight when the cargo ship Dali rammed into one of the bridge’s supports, Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said during a news conference.
“I can’t believe there were people on that bridge when it went down, it’s crazy,” John said.
“I’ve been in this neighborhood 57 years, I remember when they started building that bridge, and I can’t believe it’s gone,” he added.
Nearby, Priscilla Thompson said she was awoken in the middle of the night by the sound of crashing steel.
“And then it got real quiet,” she recounted to the Baltimore Sun.
The Dali, a Singapore-flagged vessel that had just left port on its way to Sri Lanka, was seen slamming into the central part of the Key Bridge early Tuesday morning.
Horrifying footage showed several vehicles — including a tractor-trailer rig — plunging into the frigid Patapsco River as the steel arches and roadway tumbled into the water.
The ship also caught fire, sending thick, black smoke billowing across the busy harbor.
The impact of the crash sent several neighbors running outside to see what the commotion was, and Bobby Gattus decided to film what he saw in those early morning hours.
“Wanted to know what the bang was,” he said in a video posted online.
“The bridge is gone,” Gattus said.
“Holy hell.”
By the time other Marylanders woke up on Tuesday, they said they couldn’t believe the news.
Michael Brown, for example, said his friend was trying to call him following the crash to tell him, “Hey dude, the Key Bridge just collapsed.”
“I finally called him back when I woke up this morning, and he said, ‘Dude, it’s gone — a ship hit it and it’s gone,’” Brown told Sky News.
“He said they thought it was an earthquake that hit so they ran out and checked it out.”
But Brown said he initially thought his friend was pulling a prank on him.
“I live down the way and I thought, ‘This is like an April Fool’s joke right now,’ so I came down just to see and I can’t believe it.”
Another local also expressed shock, telling how they were just crossing the bridge on Monday.
“To see the bridge gone, knowing I was on that bridge not even 10 hours ago — it’s devastating,” the resident told CBS News.
Everything you need to know about the Francis Scott Key Bridge's collapse in Baltimore
- The Dali, the Singapore-flagged container ship that smashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore and destroyed it early Tuesday, reportedly lost propulsion and tried to warn officials that it was going to crash, according to a report.
- Six people were unaccounted for, according to authorities. Two people were pulled from the river by rescuers.
- Seven vehicles were missing after falling from the 1.6-mile-long span. Officials are using sonar technology to find the vehicles.
- Videos show power on the ship flickering off, and then on again, shortly before the crash. Watch footage of the bridge’s collapse here.
- A Baltimore resident described how the horrifying collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday caused his entire house to feel like it was falling down.
- The Dali was also involved in a collision while leaving the Port of Antwerp, Belgium, in 2016.
Follow along with The Post’s coverage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore.
Others said they can’t imagine the toll the loss of the bridge will have on local and national commerce.
“This is going to be catastrophic for many reasons,”an unidentified resident told CBS.
“Number one, the harbor’s blocked. Number two, we’re not going to get any more new car deliveries at this time,” the local said.
“Amazon is just on the other side of the river and you can forget your same-day, next-day delivery packages,” they added.
“The beltway is going to be a parking lot, the tunnels are going to be over-jammed.”
More than 12.4 million commercial and passenger vehicles traversed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in 2023 — equivalent to about 34,000 a day, according to a Maryland state government report.
Millions of tons of cargo worth billions of dollars also pass through the now-shuttered state-owned and private terminals along the Patapsco River every year, according to the Baltimore Banner.
In fact, the port has led the nation in importing and exporting cars and light trucks for the past 13 years.
It also supports the cruise industry, with Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean carrying 440,000 passengers on trips across the river last year, the Banner reports.
But before any of that can resume, crews will need to pull the remnants of the bridge out of the water and clear the 50-foot-deep channel that ships use, William P. Doyle, the former director of the port, told the Banner.
Even when that’s done, though, residents say their city will never be the same.
“When the sun rises, and there’s nothing there, that’s going to be heartbreaking for a lot of people,” Lupe Lucas told the Sun Tuesday morning as she and her son gazed out at the water where the bridge once stood.
