'Single point of failure' in the bridge construction. If that pillar goes, everything collapses. That is a build-in disaster scenario. Pillar should have been protected by a buffer zone, but there is none. The ships in the harbor have become bigger by time, thus protection should have been increased as well. That is normal anticipation on changing circumstances.
@@dutchman7623 This is silly. Do you have any comprehension of just how much force is involved in these scenarios. The structure that meets your design specifications doesn't exist. there would be so much 'buffer zone' that there wouldn't be space for a ship to go underneath.
Then maybe it isn't a great idea to have any bridge in the area of a major port if bridge supports aren't designed to withstand hits from a ship. It may not be a daily occurrence but if it does happen, that poses a huge problem. And it's not too far-fetched to think that a ship could possibly hit a bridge. That bridge was 50 years old. The ship was built in 2015. I bet that newer ship was bigger and capable of carrying more cargo, than any ship that was in service in 1972. Even cruise ships are getting bigger.
Move, perhaps. I don't know if it was capable of any directional control; its own momentum, and local currents/tidal conditions, would have to be taken into account.
he never mentioned that this bridge didn't have any protection barriers, like bumpers that would prevent any size ships from colliding into it's pillars
Your probably spot on but maybe it should had more protection for the piers, easy to say but because of simple but very effective design it's a bit of an accident waiting to happen, not being a person who knows anything about ships and such would tugs have been a usefull guidance to make sure this never happened..just asking the question?,
@@ynwa3476 Yeah, they reported the ship was traveling at 8 knots and lost power. It's like a car on cruise control before hitting a wall. That ship no doubt completely shifted the structure and integrity of that bridge.
@@ynwa3476 100 meters of heavy concrete tetrahedrons as used on breakwaters certainly could stop a ship by grounding it well away from the bridge. Barrier methods can be DISTANT from the bridge and not connected to it. Large as it is that ship couldn't go 100 meters up a beach even at full throttle.
Seriously! As someone who has spent several years sailing… there’s something really odd about this whole thing. There are too many “coincidences” or things “going wrong” All the control systems go off? The steering goes out? No tug boats? They throw the anchor out? The ship makes “evasive maneuvers” in the last few minutes… and it strikes? So, if the evasive maneuvers HADN’T been made, it would have missed the bridge supports? AND… within a few hours, the federal government of the USA says they will cover all costs? Right… instead of letting the insurance company do a full investigation before they decide whether they will cover it or not “Nothing to see here!”
Even a stupid person can tell that a massive 100k ton ship hitting a bridge will make it collapse. These things are massive and can block entire canals.
No one wants to talk about that. PBD went over it on a Hometeam show. The other footage that is sped up, it just looks ridiculous... They were literally going towards the opening then, like you said, at last minute it turned hard and went directly into the pillars. I wonder, if they dropped the anchor like they said, that that could have caused it to sharply go off course, but still, why do anything at all if you are headed in the right direction. You just want to get by the bridge and then figure everything else out. Very weird...
The lights did not "flicker" as stated, I've seen the video, there was a shipwide blackout, just as the ship veered off course & struck that pier perfectly. No port pilot could have steered that ship any better. Just as if it was a perfectly executed sabatoge job.
Have you ever noticed how there are concrete posts surrounding gas pumps? They protect the pumps from errant drivers. Having grown-up on the water, ever bridge I have seen have massive pilons surrounding the structural supports, to protect them from such events. Why does this bridge, that is so important in so many ways, have no structural protections?
As a general rule the guys steering a 100,000 ton vessel in restricted waters are far more skilled than a typical guy steering his Chevy into the gas station. Also the are many orders of magnitude difference in what is required to stop a 3000 lb car moving at 15 MPH than there is to stop a 200,000,000 lb ship moving at 10 mph.
@@cheryljohnson380no. Engineer design things for worst case scenario. When that bridge was designed they made protection for ships that where around that time. Probably twice the size of them. Dali is 4X or more bigger.
@@Sovereignmanforever Homer, this bridge was built in 1977. Ships were nowhere near the size they are today. No bridge has piers designed to take the load of the Empire State Building coming at it at 9 mph.
Nobody has addressed the main question: Assuming that the steering was gone/ineffective, why the hell did the captain not put the engines in reverse and drop anchor immediately?
The story now is that one anchor was deployed and that explains why the ship made an almost U-turn to hit the piling of the bridge. If that is the case why wasn't the other anchor dropped instead which would have moved the ship away from the bridge piling?
It's my understanding that this ship has a single engine with a direct drive to the propeller. To go into "reverse", the engine actually runs backwards. The process to switch from forward to reverse can take several minutes.
The ship's lights were NOT flickering. Flickering means shining unsteadily, fluctuating in brightness. The ship's lights went completely dark (off) instantaneously as a result of complete loss of electrical power for as-yet known reasons, and it happened twice.
I saw 3 off then on's. then a final off. Yet why did it clearly turn into the Pillars ?? or why didn't it Turn to Port instead?? And if there were 2 minutes when the emergency was called in till it hit the Pillars, then why weren't the anchors instantly dropped.???
@@nelsonhelmutt5076I take it you don’t understand how anchors work. An anchor is not meant to stop a moving vessel. It will slow one down of course just from the drag it creates but it will not drastically or suddenly slow it down given this vessel’s size. The chain on an anchor, more technically the weight of the chain, is what keeps a vessel stationary. They were never intended as failsafes but they are used as failsafes because what other options do you really have? The conditions at the bottom will also have an impact on how the anchor and anchor chain work. And even a properly sized anchor and chain can still not be enough for a vessel even with a little bit of current or a tide shift, which is why a lot of vessels have drag alarms for when they’re sitting on anchor. These guys really had no chance of avoiding this because by the time they knew an impact was imminent, it was too late to do anything about it. The forward momentum on a vessel of this size is astronomical, even at slow speeds. These cargo ships can be at cruising speed, throttle down and coast for 10 miles and still be moving at 3-4knts after 10 miles. Those anchors will hold it in place if it’s already stopped, but trying to immediately stop it is a whole different ball game
@@titan1856 SIMPLE SOLUTION. THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN TUGGED OUT KNOWING THAT IT IS AN OLD BRIDGE AND GAP IS VERY NARROW AND WATER IS CHOPPY. THE SIDE THRUSTERS SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRED BUT WHO KNOWS THEY WERE WORKING OR NOT? --------------------------- IT WAS A DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN TO BE HONEST.
I'm not really sure about the strategy of concentrating on the ship or the construction of the bridge itself. In Denmark, we are used to many drunken sailors from east and west passing through our busy waters going in and out of the Baltic Sea. There are therefore sandbars around the pillars so that any ship runs aground before reaching a bridge.
I saw a RUclips video where there was an interview with a person stating that other bridges in the vicinity have an impact concrete island, similar to your sandbar, that would divert a "drunken" ship from hitting the steel pillar. Not sure why this particular bridge didn't have that design. I think the journalism horrible for this tragedy. I don't know why this structural engineer didn't pick that up.
"So how did the structural integrity of the bridge collapse?" "Well, the ship..." "My dude. The Bridge. We're talking about the bridge. We know what happened."
Mayday was relayed to ground based responders and they closed the bridge. However there were workers on the bridge that fell. Two were rescued, six unaccounted for.
The reporter keeps missing the point, the bridge was built just fine. That bridge wasn't meant to handle the amount of point load that it took from the side
@fieds1988 You have no idea if the bridge was built just fine. Nor do I of course but the question to ask is this. There must be a safety requirement of some sort that says that such and such bridge should be able to take a hit of such and such force. Like any foundation, you can only put that much force on it. Can I suggest that the safety codes of the1970's, when the bridge was built, did not anticipate the increase in cargo ships weight and therefore that developments in boat sizes/weights overtook the codes, like an earthquake stronger than the maximum expected in the calculations would bring down a building? Never rush to jugement.
@@pindapoy1596 There is a safety barrier most bridges like this have in the water so a ship cannot reach the supports if they go off course like this. Huge concrete barriers that go down into the water that are 10s of 1000s of tons.
@@pindapoy1596 Can you give me an example of a bridge in existence, anywhere in the world, at any point in Earth's history, that could survive an impact with a 100k ton ship moving at 8 knots? Better yet, do you actually comprehend the ridiculousness of that request? I think you don't, but a physics course should help explain it better than I could. That much mass, with that momentum, isn't going to stop for any bridge without causing catastrophic damage.
This guy's voice is so relaxing. The bridge didn't have safety bollards, and the ship was having major electrical problems the night before because too many refrigerators.
Magically named after a guy who did a painting about a broken bride. And America is about to collapse, and a bridge named after the writer of its anthem collapses.
He didn't do much better. If he thinks that bridge can be replaced in 2 years of less, he has no sense of bridge design and construction whatsoever! I would say that between removal of the debris, design and approval of new plans, materials acquisition and construction, anything less than 5 years would be miraculous!
The bridge has been standing since 1977, 46 years of ship traffic passed safely under this bridge with no incident. Why was the Captain navigating so close to the bridges pier when he had a large degree of open space between those piers?
Yeah, it's pretty obvious why it collapsed. The bridge had a balanced distribution of forces. Once that balance was gone, the forces were unevenly distributed over a structure not capable of handling that much additional force, and it snowballed as supports failed.
It seemed to all of a sudden go full speed and full turn into the bridge pier... It most defiantly looked like the controls were hacked to me! But that's just me.
BYDENS TREANSPORTATION OFFICER SAID THE BRIDGE WAS "RACEST"....WHY DID NOT SAY BUT MY GUESS IS BECAUSE THE BRIDGE WAS NAMED AFTER THE FATHER OF OUR NATIONAL ANTHUM!!! WILL NOW BE NAMED FOR SOME LIB??
Why are we talking to a Canadian Enginner about a bridge that was healthy… we need a maritime engineer to discuss why this ship had these massive double failure.
Healthy is subjective. Clearly it's old and not designed to withstand hits by modern size ships. And with the growing economy, ships aren't getting smaller, but bigger. That's why there are military operations near Yemen.
@@Schaden-freude What about an island as a buffer, as another commenter suggested? If a heavily used bridge is going to be built in the way of such ships, and can collapse from a collision then this should definitely be a safety concern.
Most likely the ships auxiliary engine failed during standby. Perhaps they were running too few of them or some other reason like fuel failure. The investigation will tell.
@@Schaden-freudethat isn’t true. Why is there only a few supports throughout the entire bridge? Look up the sunshine skyway bridge incident and look at the modern one. It has far more independent supports. This would have been a months work if this ship hit the skyway.
It is odd to notice that the hydro poles in the water have concrete protective rings encircling them, to protect them from passing ships, but the supports for the bridge does NOT have similar concrete protective rings.
This bridge has had hundreds of thousands of ships of all sizes, including thousands just as large and just as loaded as this behemoth, for the past almost 50 years, and there hasn't been a SINGLE instance of a ship-rams-bridge mishap. Why? Because all other ships are seaworthy, and the master and crew followed all the rules and precautions about sailing under this bridge. It is not practical to install barriers around the supports just to prevent this one incident in 50 years. Besides, installing the barriers would narrow the width of the navigable channel under the bridge, and then the port would have to limit the size of ships which can dock here, one of the busiest and biggest ports in the world.
To the news reporter, bridges are not intended to be rammed by ships, only to support traffic!!!no bridges today can take a direct hit by a ship of This size!!
Go to Wikipedia and type in "List of Bridge Failures". It's unbelievable how many bridges have collapsed (in just the last 40-50 years) from a ship or barge strike. It's relatively common, sadly. New bridges have islands or buffer structures around the piers to avoid such disasters because it's happened so often
May I suggest that you look at images of the Sunshine Skyway bridge and it's robust pier protection. Not only do they have massive concrete dolphins.... There is a massive amount of riprap around the main piers. If a ship were to hit that it would simply run aground. They learned from their 1980 disaster. Unfortunately, the lessons weren't learned elsewhere.
The support pillar was critical to holding the bridge up. It was a single point of failure. Therefore it would be crucial to ensure that the likelihood of anything hitting it was minimized. There was no buffer around those supports. No redundancy. The ship was ~100,000 tons and having lost power, it was uncontrolled and drifted with the current. The captain (or local pilot) who was steering the ship tried to put it into reverse, and even dropped an anchor, but the forward momentum was too great. At least the pilot was able to signal a Mayday so that authorities on land were able to close the bridge to traffic just in time (though not for the eight construction workers).
@@TheEgg185 No. Not exactly. Traffic had been stopped. The last moving vehicle made it off the bridge about 45 seconds before the ship struck it. The vehicles that were on the bridge likely belonged to the workers that were lost.
Interestingly, the vessel missed the bridge protective "dolphin" just right, before steering sharp right and colliding precisely where it takes to make the strongest impact on the bridge.
@@seameology As a matter of fact, yes, the current from the Curtis river runs from west to east, entering the main channel just in time to push the stern clockwise and orienting the direction of the rudderless Dali more in line with the bridge pylon. Sal shows that very clearly in one of his recent videos in the “What’s up with shipping?” Channel.
There is a serious failure of risk analysis here. In Hobart Australia the Tasman bridge was collapsed by an ore carrier. When the bridge was rebuilt much was made of the improved piers supports but when you see photos it is obvious the foundations of the new piers are not much larger than the existing piers and no existing pier foundations were improved . Someone was not prepared to pay the cost of tugs guiding ships past the bridge. The piers have no ship collision protection not for the Baltimore bridge nor the Tasman bridge. Bows of ships extend many meters beyond the ship waterline and easily can smash piers so this accident was simply a question of when, not if.
When it was built 50 years ago the ships were orders of magnitude smaller. At that size no buffer will stop a direct impact, all you can do is tighten regulations on maintenance to prevent those engine failures from ever happening
No ship can go under the Tasman Bridge without tugs since that incident in 1975. Tug boats are used for guiding ships under the Westgate Bridge in Melbourne Australia & should have been in Baltimore. I can pretty much guarantee this will be the norm in Baltimore from now on.
@@francfurian8215 Exactly. If every ship had tug boat guidance to pass the now destroyed bridge the Baltimore bridge would be still intact. I mowed lawns for a while. My insurance did not cover me unless I filled out a risk analysis form for every job I did, including steps taken to mitigate percieved risks. In the end I never claimed insurance as no damage happened. For example when cleaning mowers I always disconnected the spark plug. Should I have cut my hand by a running mower my insurance did not cover that because my risk assessment included a mitigation of disconnected spark plug.
I am glad to hear that re the Tasman bridge. If it did go down, I don't even want to think about what that would be like, traffic is so bad these days.
Kinda makes you wonder... Perhaps the most strategic bridge on the Eastern Coastal area; and it is soooo vulnerable. Wonder, if anyone else noticed this?
Exactly. If the ship is seaworthy, as it should be, and the master and crew follow all the rules and precautions, as they should do, there would be no problem at all.
If they're electrical wires or transformers exp loding, shouldn't all the lights on the bridge go out and the whole bridge plunged into darkness as it goes down?? The street lights on the bridge are still on as it's falling. Definitely sus pic ious.
What’s interesting is that those electrical transmission towers near the bridge have really substantial protection around their base, it’s visible in the video. But I can’t see any around the piers of the bridge.
Bridges designed and built in that era were NOT fail-safe but failure critical meaning that if you remove one or more points of support the remaining structure cannot hold it up.
Wasn't a "Bridge" issue... The Ship ran off course and took out a Main Support leg causing the Entire structure of the Bridge to collapse. Cargo Ships are Massively Heavy. Once set in motion, it will stay in Motion even after the Power is Shut off, a Ship will coast for Miles. Even dropping the Anchors, the ship will Drag them for a long, long time or possibly snap the chains should the anchor snag of something. Think about a Train Engine. They are massive right, 400,000 lbs. 200 tons A loaded cargo ship weighs as much as 1000 Locomotives combined. 400,000,000 lbs that's 400 million pounds or 200,000 tons The weight of 1,000 Train Engines crashing into the Bridge..
Nah....they were probably having a dance party. This guy wouldn't want to speculate if a dance party would have anything to do with the bridge collapsing.
The ship goes completely dark for about 10 seconds, total loss of power during the turn next to the bridge. The port anchor was dropped to stop the ship but the anchor dragged. with the engines in full reverse rudder control was lost because of the sudden attempted change of direction. No rudder control in full reverse dragging an anchor, but forward momentum was to much.
Once the Captain radios MAYDAY both ends of the bridge should have been shut down. No vehicles should have plunged into the bay. Poor Baltimore contingency planning.
It went dark for one minute, then power came back for 1:10 and went out again. And half minute later, power came back and was on until it struck the bridge.
@@thefpvlife7785Since you're copying this idiocy everywhere I'll copy my response. "For having about two minutes to respond they did really goddamn well. Traffic was cut and the only ones on it were a roadwork crew, without radio contact or time to drive out and tell them then get back before impact"
The reason it fell is that there was no emergency barriers of any kind that can be seen in the video. A ship could and did sail right into the darn bridge. You can bet that whenever this bridge is rebuilt there will be large cement and steel collision barriers so that this type thing cannot happen.
Ship is on route to go directly between the two bridge supports. Ships lights go on and off. Ship steers directly into the bridge support and hits the support. This ship steered directly into the support in the last five minutes of approach. Hard turn into the bridge. PPC
@@joshgross8741 the rudder of a ship like this has about 20 to 50 tons, if you lose power and need to turn it by handdriven hydralik pumps you need 10 to 15 min to just straighten it out.
My father was the Project Engineer when the bridge was built. I spent time with him on the bridge before it was finished and I take this personally because of his major role. Until a thorough investigation of the ship is done everything related to the power failure is speculation.
Once the Captain radios MAYDAY both ends of the bridge should have been shut down. No vehicles should have plunged into the bay. Poor Baltimore contingency planning.
@@thefpvlife7785 I am guessing the vehicles on the bridge were the crew's....who were working on potholes. So they were probably empty and the workers went flying into the water.
Wait a minute.......There is no steering? No breaks or reverse thrust? Out of control? How far back in the water did they realize the boat was out of control? Too many questions unanswered here. The boat goes right into one of the most important pilings and collapses most of it. This dog don't hunt, accident or no accident.
@@firebald2915 did you notice the smoke? that means the captain threw it in reverse and floored it. which means it will turn into the direction of the rudder turn
@@johng4093Actually, being in the parking decks of hospitals, a lot of doctors drive modest cars. My guess is it may have to do with massive student debt.
Cased is not closed. How does such a large ship get so far off course that it would even come close to the pier? The veering off of the ship began well before the flickering of the lights. Why would the anchor not be deployed much sooner? To not question that this could be deliberate is what's most frustrating.
Why did the bridge collapse?... The ship was over 984 feet long and 95,000 tons empty. It has a capacity listed as over 9,500 20' shipping containers. Each of those 20' containers weighs around 5,000 pounds empty and are capable of around 67,000 pounds maximum capacity each.
Though with that kind of knowledge you certainly couldn't be a news anchor. This event has certainly brought out some of the dumbest questions in history of television.
Then be grateful it was only a small container ship that hit it. What would have happened if it had been hit by a LARGER MODERN container ship, presumably it would have wiped out the entire bridge instead of just half. When you design and build something like that bridge you ASSUME THE WORST, name that something WILL hit it and you design it so that when that happens the damage done is minimal. They obviously ignored that lesson in engineering school (and dad WAS an engineer, he always said you think of the worst that might happen and design with that in mind - look at Sydney Harbour Bridge, that was designed by an engineer (or group of) who KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING and they designed it to largely withstand such a collision - but seems the team designing this bridge either didn't listen or ignored that bit of civil and structural engineering wisdom.
Obviously a faulty mechanical failure of the ship, but the bridge itself should and could have better protection at the base with more wider support. Also why don't they have tugboats to guide the ship?
Normally a pilot who is knowledgeable of the area will come on board to help with navigation through the channels and tugs would be only used for berthing
@@geoffreyday7193As was evident in this case no pilot would be helpful as the engine failed. And get an anchor down would not have given enough time to stop. A couple of tugboats would have saved the bridge! Now they will have to spend millions of dollars to fix the bridge and bridge commuters will have to wait at least 2 years before the bridge reopens.
sometimes I think they try to ask questions from the pov of an ignorant person so that if such a person is watching, they might become a bit less ignorant.
The bridge didn’t have pier fenders to guide a large objects from touching the pier column. The fender plinth is a huge almond shaped concrete (like a snow shoe) around but not touching the pier column. So this drifting ship would’ve hit the fender and then guided along the edge of the of the concrete plinth and guiding it onward under the bridge without touching the steel piers. Island buffers are the proper terminology. We see them on many old and new bridges.
It's a continuous span truss bridge. Truss bridges are used in this application because you can span wider channels with less bridge. Essentially, you don't need as many piers and less reinforcing in the bridge members. The downside to a truss bridge is that it's defined as "frature critical." All members rely on each other for support. There's little redundancy in truss bridges compared to other style bridges. The pier wasn't needed to be heavily reinforced since the truss bridge is lighter than a typical concrete bridge. The continuous span truss bridge was used for this application, but the continuous span truss bridge is the reason it collapsed. I would see it replaced with a cable stay bridge. Dolphins will most likely be placed around the piers. The NTSB investigation may result in a federal law requiring dolphins or other protection around bridge piers.
The kinetic energy of a fully laden container ship traveling at 8 knots is more than double the energy of an a320 aircraft flying at cruising speed. It’s a powerful force!
The bridge is engineered like a tent. And if you kick the tent pole down the whole thing comes crashing. The boat was 100,000 tons. That's as big as the biggest aircraft carrier. There exists no structures capable of withstanding the impact of 100,000 ton batterring Ram.
False. Concrete barriers easily stop ships like that. In fact, the ship was easily stopped by a concrete bridge pier. If you build a concrete barrier further out from the bridge pier, you stop the ship and keep the bridge intact.
NOTE !! Has the power pylons have more protection than the bridge? How can a ship get close to the pier surly a rock or concrete barrier should be in place?
It appears there was a malfunction with the ship and not malfunction of the bridge. Genius! Since the bridge did not run into the ship. So much to learn from the news.
He was only on air for 5 minutes. Pay an engineer, and they might do a full simulation of what happened, and be able to tell you the distribution of forces and stresses on the bridge caused by the ship.
The problem was that there was no concrete “bumper” for ships to hit before hitting the bridge itself. Other bridges have these cast forms that sit in the path of oncoming ships to deflect their path and protect the structural columns. These were completely vulnerable to what happened.
Even if this 1970 bridge had those installed, they would have been designed for cargo ships with a GRT of like 50,000 at the high end, which is half the weight of this ship.
As a Union Ironworker I am surprised you guys never ask actual steelworkers and bridge builders their opinions on the bridge. What does a pencil pusher know about the field?
The same thing happened to the Sunshine Skyway bridge in 1980. Ship lost power or was lost in the fog (canr temember), hit the support and part of the bridge collapsed. After repairs were made or a new bridge was constructed, concrete pillars were place in front to deflect ships and island masses were also cinstructed around the supporta to ground ships if it happened again.
@@redwingblackbirdnell...You genuinely don't comprehend that's literally the federal governments job do you? Or that those roads generate far more yearly national income in taxes than they cost to maintain?
Are they going to rebuild it exactly as it was, or will they redesign it to prevent something like this from causing catastrophic damage again? And if the latter, what will they do?
I predict 5 years. It’ll take at least a year to do engineering and permitting. BTW: I hope I am wrong, and you’re right. The city of Baltimore needs the bridge yesterday.
Well hold on there - how do we know for sure it wasn't the bridge that crashed into the ship??? Did the bridge maybe have alcohol in its system? I'm waiting for the autopsy report before coming to any conclusions...
We can all see that the impact directly led to the structural failure, what we need to know is how that structure failed; and we need to know this because there will be other bridges that may also be at risk. HAving one bridge downed by an out of control large ship is poor luck, having another one is verging on negligence.. Lessons will have to be learned, other at risk bridges may have to have strengthening works completed to make them more robust to impacts. So no, not case closed, far from it.
Why wasn't the assault ship being guided by at least two tugboats through the vulnerable pass ? This would have prevented this disaster. The American government is inept.
The ship company is owned by Mitch McConnel's sister in law who drowned in the pond with the Tesla. I am sure some short cuts may have been allowed but I don't know that.
As an engineer you should know, that taking one piece from a bridge shouldn't collapse it. These accidents, where is ship hits a bridge pillar is more frequent than you think. However none of the bridges completely collapsed like this one. Just saying..................
One theory is that the ship got some bad fuel that stalled the diesel. The ship restarted but again the diesel died. I've heard that newer bridges would have had barriers out farther from the piers to prevent ships from contacting the piers. Sam at "what's up with shipping" has covered this accident on several videos
The guy is a structural engineer. Stop asking him about the ship.
Settle down. He was willing to offer his perspective.
He said that he had knowledge of ships as well.
'Single point of failure' in the bridge construction. If that pillar goes, everything collapses. That is a build-in disaster scenario. Pillar should have been protected by a buffer zone, but there is none. The ships in the harbor have become bigger by time, thus protection should have been increased as well. That is normal anticipation on changing circumstances.
@@dutchman7623 I agree with you. Buffer protection should have been added. The size of ships has increased enormously over the last fifty years.
@@dutchman7623 This is silly. Do you have any comprehension of just how much force is involved in these scenarios. The structure that meets your design specifications doesn't exist. there would be so much 'buffer zone' that there wouldn't be space for a ship to go underneath.
Note for the reporter bridge supports are not designed to withstand hits from ships
95,000 tons. 8 knots
They sure are.
They are if they spend the money on safeguards.
Then maybe it isn't a great idea to have any bridge in the area of a major port if bridge supports aren't designed to withstand hits from a ship. It may not be a daily occurrence but if it does happen, that poses a huge problem. And it's not too far-fetched to think that a ship could possibly hit a bridge. That bridge was 50 years old. The ship was built in 2015. I bet that newer ship was bigger and capable of carrying more cargo, than any ship that was in service in 1972. Even cruise ships are getting bigger.
@@donyoung7874damn if only you were there to prevent it with your knowledge
That ship seemed to steer right for that main support.
Exactly what I was saying, the crash was intentional, if you look closer at the video you will see explosive in some of the support that held it up.
Direct hit
Supposedly there was another cargo ship that hit a bridge in Oklahoma ..... look it up
Yes the captain planned the whole event and rang up Joe rogan and said I've got a new conspiracy for ya . They won't believe what just happened
@@corneliuselbourne1044 it was a freak accident, the ships captain gave out a mayday thus saving many lives.
Move, perhaps. I don't know if it was capable of any directional control; its own momentum, and local currents/tidal conditions, would have to be taken into account.
Never let a toddler write your interview questions about a topic you haven't even bothered to self inquire about.
I would think some extra support center each side. Center of next sections would have
Lessened damage even if not full piers
I think a toddler would have asked better questions. This interview sounds like it was written by the Kardashians
@@dondesnoo1771 k
he never mentioned that this bridge didn't have any protection barriers, like bumpers that would prevent any size ships from colliding into it's pillars
They clearly hired her for her looks, not brains.
That cargo ship is super massive, a fully loaded ship can be well over 150,000 tons. No bridge new or old could withstand that force slamming into it.
Your probably spot on but maybe it should had more protection for the piers, easy to say but because of simple but very effective design it's a bit of an accident waiting to happen, not being a person who knows anything about ships and such would tugs have been a usefull guidance to make sure this never happened..just asking the question?,
@@chrisschneiders6734 No protection would have stopped that ship. The weight and forces involved are ridiculous.
@@ynwa3476 Yeah, they reported the ship was traveling at 8 knots and lost power. It's like a car on cruise control before hitting a wall. That ship no doubt completely shifted the structure and integrity of that bridge.
I would think sections would collapse, not the whole thing.
@@ynwa3476 100 meters of heavy concrete tetrahedrons as used on breakwaters certainly could stop a ship by grounding it well away from the bridge. Barrier methods can be DISTANT from the bridge and not connected to it. Large as it is that ship couldn't go 100 meters up a beach even at full throttle.
Can hear them now:
"We've investigated OURSELVES and have concluded no wrong doing." Yea, you betcha!
Seriously!
As someone who has spent several years sailing… there’s something really odd about this whole thing.
There are too many “coincidences” or things “going wrong”
All the control systems go off? The steering goes out? No tug boats? They throw the anchor out? The ship makes “evasive maneuvers” in the last few minutes… and it strikes? So, if the evasive maneuvers HADN’T been made, it would have missed the bridge supports?
AND… within a few hours, the federal government of the USA says they will cover all costs? Right… instead of letting the insurance company do a full investigation before they decide whether they will cover it or not
“Nothing to see here!”
And now the taxpayers of ALL the states will pay for the cleanup, and new bridge.....😡
@@kylechristofferson349Distribution of wealth. Millions into unknown pockets.
Even a stupid person can tell that a massive 100k ton ship hitting a bridge will make it collapse. These things are massive and can block entire canals.
But did you see the sparks from the phos charges !? @@khanch.6807
Why haven't they addressed how the ship was steering away from the pillar and then corrected itself at the last minute to go directly into the pillar?
No one wants to talk about that. PBD went over it on a Hometeam show. The other footage that is sped up, it just looks ridiculous... They were literally going towards the opening then, like you said, at last minute it turned hard and went directly into the pillars. I wonder, if they dropped the anchor like they said, that that could have caused it to sharply go off course, but still, why do anything at all if you are headed in the right direction. You just want to get by the bridge and then figure everything else out. Very weird...
The lights did not "flicker" as stated, I've seen the video, there was a shipwide blackout, just as the ship veered off course & struck that pier perfectly. No port pilot could have steered that ship any better. Just as if it was a perfectly executed sabatoge job.
You said it!! Exactly what is going on in a LOT of people's minds.
Remote controlled collision.
Have you ever noticed how there are concrete posts surrounding gas pumps? They protect the pumps from errant drivers. Having grown-up on the water, ever bridge I have seen have massive pilons surrounding the structural supports, to protect them from such events. Why does this bridge, that is so important in so many ways, have no structural protections?
As a general rule the guys steering a 100,000 ton vessel in restricted waters are far more skilled than a typical guy steering his Chevy into the gas station. Also the are many orders of magnitude difference in what is required to stop a 3000 lb car moving at 15 MPH than there is to stop a 200,000,000 lb ship moving at 10 mph.
Kinda like it was planned. 😒
@@cheryljohnson380no. Engineer design things for worst case scenario. When that bridge was designed they made protection for ships that where around that time. Probably twice the size of them. Dali is 4X or more bigger.
i love how the engineer breaks it down to the level of the reporter: not a faulty bridge but a faulty ship
Yes, also apparently the ship was too big. If you have big ships then you should have bigger bridges with stronger supports 🤣
Single point of failure is a faulty bridge. There should have be protections around the support pillars.
@@Sovereignmanforever Homer, this bridge was built in 1977. Ships were nowhere near the size they are today. No bridge has piers designed to take the load of the Empire State Building coming at it at 9 mph.
@@brad8183 Wait till I tell you that by your definition, nearly every bridge in existence is a faulty bridge.
@@pjmuffinExactly my point! So a bigger stronger bridge would make little difference. Surely it is the design of the bridge that is the problem.
Anyone else flabbergasted at the fact they made the reporter ask such a brain dead question and she asked it with such emotion lol
This woman is beyond stupid
Milking out news drama.
After hearing her unable to say Canada (0:07), not really.
@@VinnyVinceVipershe was referring to Ken the engineer
Lights flickering!! Lol
Nobody has addressed the main question: Assuming that the steering was gone/ineffective, why the hell did the captain not put the engines in reverse and drop anchor immediately?
The story now is that one anchor was deployed and that explains why the ship made an almost U-turn to hit the piling of the bridge. If that is the case why wasn't the other anchor dropped instead which would have moved the ship away from the bridge piling?
They were on their cell phones ?
Suspicious.
@@kenlawdhammercy5804 Just wait until you see all the more "suspicious" activities. Hold onto your hat
It's my understanding that this ship has a single engine with a direct drive to the propeller. To go into "reverse", the engine actually runs backwards. The process to switch from forward to reverse can take several minutes.
The ship's lights were NOT flickering. Flickering means shining unsteadily, fluctuating in brightness. The ship's lights went completely dark (off) instantaneously as a result of complete loss of electrical power for as-yet known reasons, and it happened twice.
I saw 3 off then on's. then a final off. Yet why did it clearly turn into the Pillars ?? or why didn't it Turn to Port instead??
And if there were 2 minutes when the emergency was called in till it hit the Pillars, then why weren't the anchors instantly dropped.???
@@nelsonhelmutt5076I take it you don’t understand how anchors work. An anchor is not meant to stop a moving vessel. It will slow one down of course just from the drag it creates but it will not drastically or suddenly slow it down given this vessel’s size. The chain on an anchor, more technically the weight of the chain, is what keeps a vessel stationary. They were never intended as failsafes but they are used as failsafes because what other options do you really have? The conditions at the bottom will also have an impact on how the anchor and anchor chain work. And even a properly sized anchor and chain can still not be enough for a vessel even with a little bit of current or a tide shift, which is why a lot of vessels have drag alarms for when they’re sitting on anchor. These guys really had no chance of avoiding this because by the time they knew an impact was imminent, it was too late to do anything about it. The forward momentum on a vessel of this size is astronomical, even at slow speeds. These cargo ships can be at cruising speed, throttle down and coast for 10 miles and still be moving at 3-4knts after 10 miles. Those anchors will hold it in place if it’s already stopped, but trying to immediately stop it is a whole different ball game
@@titan1856 SIMPLE SOLUTION. THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN TUGGED OUT KNOWING THAT IT IS AN OLD BRIDGE AND GAP IS VERY NARROW AND WATER IS CHOPPY. THE SIDE THRUSTERS SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRED BUT WHO KNOWS THEY WERE WORKING OR NOT?
---------------------------
IT WAS A DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN TO BE HONEST.
Why did he change course? Is there a connection with the fact that the Ukrainian was steering the ship?
@@ningtanagrey9141not a Ukrainian but a Russian agent. Pooh tin is behind this😂😂
I'm not really sure about the strategy of concentrating on the ship or the construction of the bridge itself. In Denmark, we are used to many drunken sailors from east and west passing through our busy waters going in and out of the Baltic Sea. There are therefore sandbars around the pillars so that any ship runs aground before reaching a bridge.
hey..great idea..crunching hull to a stop..brilliant
Smart!
we do things quick and dirty here in the states
Maybe you should change the name to "Drunkbars"???
I saw a RUclips video where there was an interview with a person stating that other bridges in the vicinity have an impact concrete island, similar to your sandbar, that would divert a "drunken" ship from hitting the steel pillar. Not sure why this particular bridge didn't have that design. I think the journalism horrible for this tragedy. I don't know why this structural engineer didn't pick that up.
Wasn't a bridge collapse. It was a ship wreck. Come on AMERICA.
stupid
I do not understand how an interview can offer so little real information and still garner 4,100 likes.
That's because RUclips doesn't show you the 150,000 dislikes.
@@tunneloflight correct.
Conformation of the level of DUMB around the world.
People’s standards keep getting lower…
It’s fun watching idiots asking stupid questions
Why didn’t the bridge have island buffers around the pillars?
The money for that went into someone's pocket a long time ago
The money for things like that are being sent to Ukraine or funding CRT/LGBT in our schools.
They were actually smart enough to put those in after the Tampa Sunshine Skyway collapse. @@Cfbaccount
@@Cfbaccount Money Trump sent to Putin.
@@charliewatts6895lol Let's just ignore the 100+ billion that were pissed away in Ukraine, because that makes YOUR side look bad.
*Engineer:* "Looks like a ship mighta done it."
😂🤦🏻♂️
"So how did the structural integrity of the bridge collapse?"
"Well, the ship..."
"My dude. The Bridge. We're talking about the bridge. We know what happened."
Lol
This guy may know his stuff but the language he used makes himsound as if he is not sure what he saw on the time lapse video.
Was it a big ship?
It could have been much worse at another time of day.
Mayday was relayed to ground based responders and they closed the bridge. However there were workers on the bridge that fell. Two were rescued, six unaccounted for.
Yes, if the time had been around 7:30 to 8:30 am or 4 to 6 pm, the outcome would have been extremely deadly.
How so ?
at 1am the bridge would have little traffic, however during the rush hours of 7 to 8 and 5 to 6 would have way more traffic@@rupertperiwinkle4477
@@rupertperiwinkle4477wdym how so 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
The reporter keeps missing the point, the bridge was built just fine. That bridge wasn't meant to handle the amount of point load that it took from the side
@fieds1988 You have no idea if the bridge was built just fine. Nor do I of course but the question to ask is this.
There must be a safety requirement of some sort that says that such and such bridge should be able to take a hit of such and such force. Like any foundation, you can only put that much force on it. Can I suggest that the safety codes of the1970's, when the bridge was built, did not anticipate the increase in cargo ships weight and therefore that developments in boat sizes/weights overtook the codes, like an earthquake stronger than the maximum expected in the calculations would bring down a building?
Never rush to jugement.
@@pindapoy1596 There is a safety barrier most bridges like this have in the water so a ship cannot reach the supports if they go off course like this. Huge concrete barriers that go down into the water that are 10s of 1000s of tons.
@@pindapoy1596 Can you give me an example of a bridge in existence, anywhere in the world, at any point in Earth's history, that could survive an impact with a 100k ton ship moving at 8 knots? Better yet, do you actually comprehend the ridiculousness of that request? I think you don't, but a physics course should help explain it better than I could. That much mass, with that momentum, isn't going to stop for any bridge without causing catastrophic damage.
@@garetjax2768 It's called concrete barriers. Many bridges have them. They work.
Was it? a bridge with large ships passing, surely someone would have thought about protecting from impact, don't you think, other bridges are. hmmm
This guy's voice is so relaxing. The bridge didn't have safety bollards, and the ship was having major electrical problems the night before because too many refrigerators.
😂😂😂
Magically named after a guy who did a painting about a broken bride. And America is about to collapse, and a bridge named after the writer of its anthem collapses.
This is a bot account run by the alphabet agencies. You can't reply to it directly, that's the tell......
Oh no, all that refrigerated product ruined. In addition to the tragedy of the workers and the loss of the massive bridge.
This is a bot account likely operated by our 3 letter alphabet agencies. The tell is you can’t reply to it directly.
This reporter is out of her league on this. No clue.
Generally all reporters are clueless. They can't even speak properly anymore.
They are out of their league with EVERYTHING.😂
did you want her to get an engineering degree before reporting this story?
@@Richard-wl2nhJust a 5th grade education would suffice...
He didn't do much better. If he thinks that bridge can be replaced in 2 years of less, he has no sense of bridge design and construction whatsoever! I would say that between removal of the debris, design and approval of new plans, materials acquisition and construction, anything less than 5 years would be miraculous!
Big ship hits the main support and the bridge comes down doesn’t take a brain surgeon
This guy obviously isn't.
Like the towers right?
Whi.te ppl aren't the brightest.....
@@BabySpit Exactly. Tho, actually not really at all. The fire was the primary culprit there. Yes, I've had this argument many times over many years.
It doesn’t take an engineer
Ship somehow managed to hit the right spot to cause entire structure to crash....
The bridge has been standing since 1977, 46 years of ship traffic passed safely under this bridge with no incident. Why was the Captain navigating so close to the bridges pier when he had a large degree of open space between those piers?
cause he lost power
Why did he make a hard righ turn into the bridge when power came back on?@@wardoc22
@@UserUser-zc6fx Naah, pretty much aligning events.
Because it was on purpose !!!!!
@@UserUser-zc6fx SABOTAGE !!!!
I am a mechanical engineer and I watched the bridge collapse video. It came down exactly how one would expect. There is no mystery here.
I’m not a structural engineer, and I can see clearly how/why it came down.
Exactly what one would expect from a DEMOLITION THAT SET IT INTO FREEFALL ? THERMITE !
The fact that Biden agrees with you is reason enough to disbelieve you.
Ask Obama the details, he knew everything in advance👍
Yeah, it's pretty obvious why it collapsed. The bridge had a balanced distribution of forces. Once that balance was gone, the forces were unevenly distributed over a structure not capable of handling that much additional force, and it snowballed as supports failed.
It seemed to all of a sudden go full speed and full turn into the bridge pier... It most defiantly looked like the controls were hacked to me! But that's just me.
A ship that size doesn't do anything "All of a sudden". Whatever it does, it does slowly and ponderously.
No bridge on earth can stand a direct hit from a fully loaded 100,000 ton container ship.
BYDENS TREANSPORTATION OFFICER SAID THE BRIDGE WAS "RACEST"....WHY DID NOT SAY BUT MY GUESS IS BECAUSE THE BRIDGE WAS NAMED AFTER THE FATHER OF OUR NATIONAL ANTHUM!!! WILL NOW BE NAMED FOR SOME LIB??
Thats why they build fender "islands" surrounding the piers. They work.
I don't know about that, I made a pretty solid/strong Lego bridge a few years ago....
@@leonardodalongislandwould it survive a hit from a 10,000 Lego ship 🤔
@@64timesaround Ten thousand Legos-yes, 10,000 pounds, maybe not. But I say, let's try!!
Why are we talking to a Canadian Enginner about a bridge that was healthy… we need a maritime engineer to discuss why this ship had these massive double failure.
Healthy is subjective. Clearly it's old and not designed to withstand hits by modern size ships. And with the growing economy, ships aren't getting smaller, but bigger. That's why there are military operations near Yemen.
@@cryora There are very few things that can withstand a 100k GRT ship travelling at 8 knots hitting them. Think stuff like mountains.
@@Schaden-freude What about an island as a buffer, as another commenter suggested? If a heavily used bridge is going to be built in the way of such ships, and can collapse from a collision then this should definitely be a safety concern.
Most likely the ships auxiliary engine failed during standby. Perhaps they were running too few of them or some other reason like fuel failure. The investigation will tell.
@@Schaden-freudethat isn’t true. Why is there only a few supports throughout the entire bridge? Look up the sunshine skyway bridge incident and look at the modern one. It has far more independent supports. This would have been a months work if this ship hit the skyway.
It is odd to notice that the hydro poles in the water have concrete protective rings encircling them, to protect them from passing ships, but the supports for the bridge does NOT have similar concrete protective rings.
Wouldn't have made any difference
It does or should I say did have 4 protective barriers- one for each support- per an Engineer who worked on that bridge for 3 years!
Wow think how smart they were planning for this disaster so long ago when they built it! 🤦♂️
This bridge has had hundreds of thousands of ships of all sizes, including thousands just as large and just as loaded as this behemoth, for the past almost 50 years, and there hasn't been a SINGLE instance of a ship-rams-bridge mishap. Why? Because all other ships are seaworthy, and the master and crew followed all the rules and precautions about sailing under this bridge. It is not practical to install barriers around the supports just to prevent this one incident in 50 years. Besides, installing the barriers would narrow the width of the navigable channel under the bridge, and then the port would have to limit the size of ships which can dock here, one of the busiest and biggest ports in the world.
To the news reporter, bridges are not intended to be rammed by ships, only to support traffic!!!no bridges today can take a direct hit by a ship of This size!!
Go to Wikipedia and type in "List of Bridge Failures". It's unbelievable how many bridges have collapsed (in just the last 40-50 years) from a ship or barge strike. It's relatively common, sadly. New bridges have islands or buffer structures around the piers to avoid such disasters because it's happened so often
May I suggest that you look at images of the Sunshine Skyway bridge and it's robust pier protection. Not only do they have massive concrete dolphins.... There is a massive amount of riprap around the main piers. If a ship were to hit that it would simply run aground. They learned from their 1980 disaster. Unfortunately, the lessons weren't learned elsewhere.
Normal bridges around the world are protected against mishaps!
@@DavidJohnson-tv2nnit's called being cheap to build things poorly and not maintain or improve.
Anyone know what this ship was carrying and where it was headed? It's all foreign to me.
The support pillar was critical to holding the bridge up. It was a single point of failure. Therefore it would be crucial to ensure that the likelihood of anything hitting it was minimized. There was no buffer around those supports. No redundancy. The ship was ~100,000 tons and having lost power, it was uncontrolled and drifted with the current. The captain (or local pilot) who was steering the ship tried to put it into reverse, and even dropped an anchor, but the forward momentum was too great. At least the pilot was able to signal a Mayday so that authorities on land were able to close the bridge to traffic just in time (though not for the eight construction workers).
Cars were on the bridge.
@@TheEgg185 No. Not exactly. Traffic had been stopped. The last moving vehicle made it off the bridge about 45 seconds before the ship struck it. The vehicles that were on the bridge likely belonged to the workers that were lost.
Interestingly, the vessel missed the bridge protective "dolphin" just right, before steering sharp right and colliding precisely where it takes to make the strongest impact on the bridge.
The current runs sideways? Alrighty then.
@@seameology As a matter of fact, yes, the current from the Curtis river runs from west to east, entering the main channel just in time to push the stern clockwise and orienting the direction of the rudderless Dali more in line with the bridge pylon. Sal shows that very clearly in one of his recent videos in the “What’s up with shipping?” Channel.
Let's not forget that for 2 days prior, they were trying to fix the electrical problems it had before and then leaving without the problem fixed. 😮
That's how there story goes!!
There is a serious failure of risk analysis here. In Hobart Australia the Tasman bridge was collapsed by an ore carrier. When the bridge was rebuilt much was made of the improved piers supports but when you see photos it is obvious the foundations of the new piers are not much larger than the existing piers and no existing pier foundations were improved . Someone was not prepared to pay the cost of tugs guiding ships past the bridge. The piers have no ship collision protection not for the Baltimore bridge nor the Tasman bridge. Bows of ships extend many meters beyond the ship waterline and easily can smash piers
so this accident was simply a question of when, not if.
When it was built 50 years ago the ships were orders of magnitude smaller. At that size no buffer will stop a direct impact, all you can do is tighten regulations on maintenance to prevent those engine failures from ever happening
No ship can go under the Tasman Bridge without tugs since that incident in 1975. Tug boats are used for guiding ships under the Westgate Bridge in Melbourne Australia & should have been in Baltimore. I can pretty much guarantee this will be the norm in Baltimore from now on.
@@francfurian8215 Exactly. If every ship had tug boat guidance to pass the now destroyed bridge the Baltimore bridge would be still intact. I mowed lawns for a while. My insurance did not cover me unless I filled out a risk analysis form for every job I did, including steps taken to mitigate percieved risks. In the end I never claimed insurance as no damage happened. For example when cleaning mowers I always disconnected the spark plug.
Should I have cut my hand by a running mower my insurance did not cover that because my risk assessment included a mitigation of disconnected spark plug.
I am glad to hear that re the Tasman bridge. If it did go down, I don't even want to think about what that would be like, traffic is so bad these days.
Its obscene a bridge with cargo ship traffic has no protection.
Kinda makes you wonder... Perhaps the most strategic bridge on the Eastern Coastal area; and it is soooo vulnerable. Wonder, if anyone else noticed this?
Also add that the bridge had absolutely zero redundancy built into it.
Hey? What is "redundancy" as it relates to civil engineering? @@Panda-gs5lt
@@TonyTitleGuy I'm sure some officials will be asking questions. Reporters, not much..
The 1970's was a time of cost cutting. They should have added protection at some point, but hindsight is always 20/20.
I recall passing under the NewLondon bridge when I was in the Navy we never had a problem. The bridge was old in 1970 and it is still there.
Exactly. If the ship is seaworthy, as it should be, and the master and crew follow all the rules and precautions, as they should do, there would be no problem at all.
Notice how there are little explosions at the joints on the far right!? Are these electrical lines running in the structure or are these explosions?
If they're electrical wires or transformers exp loding, shouldn't all the lights on the bridge go out and the whole bridge plunged into darkness as it goes down?? The street lights on the bridge are still on as it's falling. Definitely sus pic ious.
On these bridges the power lines run down under along side not on top..
@@loricarroll2531 Aha! So those explosions at the top are anomalies. Of unknown cause.
1:56, what intrigues me is that many large bridges have their main piers set in heavy duty stone 'mini island 'supports. This bridge does not.
What’s interesting is that those electrical transmission towers near the bridge have really substantial protection around their base, it’s visible in the video. But I can’t see any around the piers of the bridge.
a really old bridge
There isn't a bridge on this planet that would survive a 150k ton cargo ship hitting it.
But could one be built so that it would?
I'm sure that the new bridge will have a bumper system around the bases of each support.
Did the boat turn while the power was on, or off?
🤔
Forget the Engineers report the real question is. How can a major harbour like this with a massive bridge and giant ships operate without TUG boats ?
Bridges designed and built in that era were NOT fail-safe but failure critical meaning that if you remove one or more points of support the remaining structure cannot hold it up.
You can’t change gravity or physics.
That’s true of any major bridge. Or any bridge.
@@catgirl6803 wrong
@@dknowles60 troll
No bridge being built today can withstand losing even just one support.
Why was there fire and explosions a half a mile away from the initial impact and collision of the bridge
Wasn't a "Bridge" issue...
The Ship ran off course and took out a Main Support leg causing the Entire structure of the Bridge to collapse.
Cargo Ships are Massively Heavy. Once set in motion, it will stay in Motion even after the Power is Shut off, a Ship will coast for Miles.
Even dropping the Anchors, the ship will Drag them for a long, long time or possibly snap the chains should the anchor snag of something.
Think about a Train Engine. They are massive right, 400,000 lbs. 200 tons
A loaded cargo ship weighs as much as 1000 Locomotives combined.
400,000,000 lbs
that's 400 million pounds or 200,000 tons
The weight of 1,000 Train Engines crashing into the Bridge..
Lights flickering was clearly the power being lost and being turned back on
Duh
It was Trump's fault.
BARILOCHE ARGENTINA
Nah....they were probably having a dance party. This guy wouldn't want to speculate if a dance party would have anything to do with the bridge collapsing.
That happend 3 times?
@@divekatdreamingtitanic all over again
I seen a video where they pointed out explosions at key points of the bridge 🌉
The ship goes completely dark for about 10 seconds, total loss of power during the turn next to the bridge. The port anchor was dropped to stop the ship but the anchor dragged. with the engines in full reverse rudder control was lost because of the sudden attempted change of direction. No rudder control in full reverse dragging an anchor, but forward momentum was to much.
Why this remind me of the Obama movie "Leave The World Behind"
Once the Captain radios MAYDAY both ends of the bridge should have been shut down. No vehicles should have plunged into the bay. Poor Baltimore contingency planning.
It went dark for one minute, then power came back for 1:10 and went out again. And half minute later, power came back and was on until it struck the bridge.
@@thefpvlife7785my understanding is that they had only just closed it.
So it was shut.
Sadly the construction workers were parked on it.
@@thefpvlife7785Since you're copying this idiocy everywhere I'll copy my response.
"For having about two minutes to respond they did really goddamn well. Traffic was cut and the only ones on it were a roadwork crew, without radio contact or time to drive out and tell them then get back before impact"
The quality of the questions from the reporter / host amazed me.
Only the HISTORY channel could have done it better. ;)
Reporters are clueless about anything remotely technical
Check out Redacted, completely different.
What quality?
Yes, yes, quality questions......
The reason it fell is that there was no emergency barriers of any kind that can be seen in the video. A ship could and did sail right into the darn bridge. You can bet that whenever this bridge is rebuilt there will be large cement and steel collision barriers so that this type thing cannot happen.
no barrier is gonna stop a 150,000 ton ship
The REAL problem was; there were NO signs on the bridge pier stating that ships are NOT allowed to hit the pier....
Ship loses engine power, ship loses steerage from no power, ship hits bridge, bridge goes down.
well, that's what they are saying
@@denisesorchidparadise1411 its what happened. low wat
Ship is on route to go directly between the two bridge supports. Ships lights go on and off. Ship steers directly into the bridge support and hits the support. This ship steered directly into the support in the last five minutes of approach. Hard turn into the bridge. PPC
If i remember correctly, shipping regulations require backup generators and batteries precisely to avoid this kind of incident.
@@joshgross8741
the rudder of a ship like this has about 20 to 50 tons, if you lose power and need to turn it by handdriven hydralik pumps you need 10 to 15 min to just straighten it out.
So did the explosions help it come down? The ones on the bridge…
My father was the Project Engineer when the bridge was built. I spent time with him on the bridge before it was finished and I take this personally because of his major role. Until a thorough investigation of the ship is done everything related to the power failure is speculation.
Don't worry. That is just TOO much uncontrolled weight and speed to withstand anything.
Cool story bro
Once the Captain radios MAYDAY both ends of the bridge should have been shut down. No vehicles should have plunged into the bay. Poor Baltimore contingency planning.
right, send out an AMBER alert or something
@@thefpvlife7785 I am guessing the vehicles on the bridge were the crew's....who were working on potholes. So they were probably empty and the workers went flying into the water.
Would that be a human that was flickering the light? WOW just wow
Sure they could have had a dance party on the ship 😅
They say there are no stupid questions!
Hahahaha!
Yes, it leaves you speechless......
Wait a minute.......There is no steering? No breaks or reverse thrust? Out of control? How far back in the water did they realize the boat was out of control? Too many questions unanswered here. The boat goes right into one of the most important pilings and collapses most of it. This dog don't hunt, accident or no accident.
You can see in the crash video that the ship lost electrical power twice which means it lost hydraulic steering
Was it going straight when it lost power or when a ship loses power, they suddenly turn ?
@@firebald2915 did you notice the smoke? that means the captain threw it in reverse and floored it. which means it will turn into the direction of the rudder turn
World Trade Center engineer is the same company that built this bridge
Ah that's what brought this Bridge down.. the Jet Fuel stored in the Cargo ship.
This reporter is asking a structural engineer about the ship losing power is like asking doctor what kind of car he drives.
Very likely an expensive car.
@@johng4093Actually, being in the parking decks of hospitals, a lot of doctors drive modest cars. My guess is it may have to do with massive student debt.
@@ceasetheday87 Unca Joe'll fix that!
REPORTER: “How does a bridge come down like a pile of dominoes?”
EVERYONE WATCHING: “Because it was hit by a 150,000 ton cargo ship.”
*CASE CLOSED.*
Cased is not closed.
How does such a large ship get so far off course that it would even come close to the pier?
The veering off of the ship began well before the flickering of the lights.
Why would the anchor not be deployed much sooner?
To not question that this could be deliberate is what's most frustrating.
Why did the bridge collapse?... The ship was over 984 feet long and 95,000 tons empty.
It has a capacity listed as over 9,500 20' shipping containers.
Each of those 20' containers weighs around 5,000 pounds empty and are capable of around 67,000 pounds maximum capacity each.
What happened? Mountain of a ship collided with bridge, bridge lost. But I am no engineer.
Though with that kind of knowledge you certainly couldn't be a news anchor. This event has certainly brought out some of the dumbest questions in history of television.
can you play one on TV, do you want to? these are the questions of the hour;
How does it come down?! That was a major support! You think the bridge could just levitate on it's own after that?!
Im suprised it didnt float either. I thought things floated on water.
Simple physics, 150,000 ton ship Hits support for bridge, bridge falls down..
@@physetermacrocephalus2209. Are you a special ed? IT IS A HEAVY ASS BRIDGE plz go back to science class and physics
The leg which collapsed was a structure holding bridge up. With a massive ship hitting that old or new won't last a massive impact
Look at that monstrosity of a ship. I'd have been surprised if the bridge didn't fall after that massive hit.
Nothing wrong with the design of the bridge. My question is why there aren't structures to protect the piers from off-course ships?
beause that costs money
do not understand why there were not any ram protections around the bridge piers
the State of Maryland had the Money as it was a toll bridge but the need for better welfare i guess was greater
Wouldn't make any difference
It's pretty simple physics, that ship is around 5x heavier than the bridge.
What is the weight of the bridge? Kilogrammes please! 😅
Then be grateful it was only a small container ship that hit it. What would have happened if it had been hit by a LARGER MODERN container ship, presumably it would have wiped out the entire bridge instead of just half.
When you design and build something like that bridge you ASSUME THE WORST, name that something WILL hit it and you design it so that when that happens the damage done is minimal. They obviously ignored that lesson in engineering school (and dad WAS an engineer, he always said you think of the worst that might happen and design with that in mind - look at Sydney Harbour Bridge, that was designed by an engineer (or group of) who KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING and they designed it to largely withstand such a collision - but seems the team designing this bridge either didn't listen or ignored that bit of civil and structural engineering wisdom.
@@MayYourGodGoWithYou maybe they did, then the bean-counters told them to cut the cost in half.
@@MayYourGodGoWithYouor you could listen to the video... It was designed and built in the 70s when cargo ships were much much smaller...
The seconds between on-line generators "failing" to the backup generator coming on line can cause flickering lights.
Obviously a faulty mechanical failure of the ship, but the bridge itself should and could have better protection at the base with more wider support. Also why don't they have tugboats to guide the ship?
Tugboats are for alongside berthing and jetty departure. They usually aren't required for exiting the harbor.
@@MaryDurica-kp6wtThat is all fine and well until you have an engine failure.
Normally a pilot who is knowledgeable of the area will come on board to help with navigation through the channels and tugs would be only used for berthing
@@geoffreyday7193As was evident in this case no pilot would be helpful as the engine failed. And get an anchor down would not have given enough time to stop. A couple of tugboats would have saved the bridge!
Now they will have to spend millions of dollars to fix the bridge and bridge commuters will have to wait at least 2 years before the bridge reopens.
one problem in 50 years the risk analysis would say tugs arent needed
It's interesting how we hear from everyone but the operators of the ship.
I am sure the lawyers have told them to evoke their Miranda. Let the investigators figure it out and wait for the subpoenas.
Why is there no mention of the Fact that the ship Master was from the Ukraine and his profile was scrubbed.
Interesting! Now we are getting somewhere. Thanks for that info.
This reporter keeps implying structural damage as if the physics of a cargo ship hitting the support of the bridge isn’t enough
This is what happens when you are cleaning pipes during Physics class.
sometimes I think they try to ask questions from the pov of an ignorant person so that if such a person is watching, they might become a bit less ignorant.
@@queenofzenk that's exactly right.
@@queenofzenk The way she phrased it tho, her tone, it came off as very obtuse.
Everything has to be blamed on the previous government,standard practice these days.
The bridge didn’t have pier fenders to guide a large objects from touching the pier column. The fender plinth is a huge almond shaped concrete (like a snow shoe) around but not touching the pier column. So this drifting ship would’ve hit the fender and then guided along the edge of the of the concrete plinth and guiding it onward under the bridge without touching the steel piers.
Island buffers are the proper terminology. We see them on many old and new bridges.
Woul have made no difference at that angle
Ignorant saboteurs?
@joeds3775 not enough defenders to guide through
It's a continuous span truss bridge. Truss bridges are used in this application because you can span wider channels with less bridge. Essentially, you don't need as many piers and less reinforcing in the bridge members. The downside to a truss bridge is that it's defined as "frature critical." All members rely on each other for support. There's little redundancy in truss bridges compared to other style bridges. The pier wasn't needed to be heavily reinforced since the truss bridge is lighter than a typical concrete bridge.
The continuous span truss bridge was used for this application, but the continuous span truss bridge is the reason it collapsed. I would see it replaced with a cable stay bridge. Dolphins will most likely be placed around the piers.
The NTSB investigation may result in a federal law requiring dolphins or other protection around bridge piers.
This woman would ask why legos break when dropped
Why does it hurt when you step on Legos?
Hahahaha!
or an egg
😂😂😂
The kinetic energy of a fully laden container ship traveling at 8 knots is more than double the energy of an a320 aircraft flying at cruising speed. It’s a powerful force!
How abput the 2 explosions on the bridge at impact. Explain what was exploding, on a brdige.
Why wouldn't the electrical transformers flash over?
The bridge is engineered like a tent. And if you kick the tent pole down the whole thing comes crashing.
The boat was 100,000 tons. That's as big as the biggest aircraft carrier. There exists no structures capable of withstanding the impact of 100,000 ton batterring Ram.
False. Concrete barriers easily stop ships like that. In fact, the ship was easily stopped by a concrete bridge pier. If you build a concrete barrier further out from the bridge pier, you stop the ship and keep the bridge intact.
@@ryanschwan2507I agree
They had a Ship of that size hit the Bay bridge in San Francisco Bay a few years ago it was still intact just needed repair ..
2 million pounds
I vote for bigger tent poles.
NOTE !! Has the power pylons have more protection than the bridge? How can a ship get close to the pier surly a rock or concrete barrier should be in place?
Fenders. Call The Guard Rail Guy.
The power lines were just installed about a year ago
@@vickiwhite5773 and the bridge could have had the same job done at the same time
It appears there was a malfunction with the ship and not malfunction of the bridge. Genius! Since the bridge did not run into the ship. So much to learn from the news.
You don’t need an engineer to explain this.
He was only on air for 5 minutes. Pay an engineer, and they might do a full simulation of what happened, and be able to tell you the distribution of forces and stresses on the bridge caused by the ship.
The great thing is tht this didn’t happen during Rush hr
The problem was that there was no concrete “bumper” for ships to hit before hitting the bridge itself. Other bridges have these cast forms that sit in the path of oncoming ships to deflect their path and protect the structural columns. These were completely vulnerable to what happened.
Yes, your one of the few that understands why this happened......this was a disaster waiting to happen.
Even if this 1970 bridge had those installed, they would have been designed for cargo ships with a GRT of like 50,000 at the high end, which is half the weight of this ship.
@@Schaden-freude This 1977 bridge could have had barriers added at any time and there were ships 100,000 tons or larger back in the 70's.
As a Union Ironworker I am surprised you guys never ask actual steelworkers and bridge builders their opinions on the bridge. What does a pencil pusher know about the field?
Better question why don't they have RUclips pages explaining it.
The same thing happened to the Sunshine Skyway bridge in 1980. Ship lost power or was lost in the fog (canr temember), hit the support and part of the bridge collapsed.
After repairs were made or a new bridge was constructed, concrete pillars were place in front to deflect ships and island masses were also cinstructed around the supporta to ground ships if it happened again.
Maryland could have done the Same thing , they wanted to spend the Money on welfare
After repairs were made. A new bridge was built to conform to modern standard..?
Meanwhile in Canada, Steven Guilbeault says federal government will no longer be funding road infrastructure.
but Canada likes to find money for welfare
ya.. so? just a way to tell municipalities to grow up and quit moaning to Feds for cash.
@@redwingblackbirdnell...You genuinely don't comprehend that's literally the federal governments job do you? Or that those roads generate far more yearly national income in taxes than they cost to maintain?
They "lost power" then said oops we need to steer into the pillar more, turn it back on 😢
This is easily a 3 year project if they can keep the other spans in place maybe 2.5 year.
The main part of the bridge fell but both ends are still standing just gotta rebuild the middle span
Are they going to rebuild it exactly as it was, or will they redesign it to prevent something like this from causing catastrophic damage again? And if the latter, what will they do?
If it were in Canada it would be a 10 year repair
@@cryora Wouldn't be surprised if they get a cable-stayed bridge
I predict 5 years.
It’ll take at least a year to do engineering and permitting.
BTW: I hope I am wrong, and you’re right. The city of Baltimore needs the bridge yesterday.
We know what happened. The fuggin ship ran into it. Case closed.
Well hold on there - how do we know for sure it wasn't the bridge that crashed into the ship??? Did the bridge maybe have alcohol in its system? I'm waiting for the autopsy report before coming to any conclusions...
We can all see that the impact directly led to the structural failure, what we need to know is how that structure failed; and we need to know this because there will be other bridges that may also be at risk. HAving one bridge downed by an out of control large ship is poor luck, having another one is verging on negligence.. Lessons will have to be learned, other at risk bridges may have to have strengthening works completed to make them more robust to impacts. So no, not case closed, far from it.
I just want to know who I can direct my anger at There must be an evil culprit somewhere. Tell me NOW and don't make it too complicated. /s
@@tb45glmaoooo
Reporter is acting like al-Qaeda blew it up or something
If you look at the ship before it hit the bridge it was full throttle smoke was a rolling it is rolling cold that means it's full throttle
With that little margin of error you'd think they would have tugs on it.
Big ship hits little bridge . Even the dim witted FBI can figure this one out.
I am not so sure of that.
That's hardly a little bridge...
Seriously lol
BARILOCHE ARGENTINA
The dude thinks he's smarter than the FBI. 😂😂😂😂😂
Ty for explaining how the bridge was to old for the times maybe we can look at other bridges that may need updates before this happens again
Why wasn't the assault ship being guided by at least two tugboats through the vulnerable pass ? This would have prevented this disaster. The American government is inept.
Mismanagement
Er..thats what they have been saying since Bush the elder son of government hater and saboteur? Gestapoist?
The ship company is owned by Mitch McConnel's sister in law who drowned in the pond with the Tesla. I am sure some short cuts may have been allowed but I don't know that.
Although our government is inept I'm not seeing the connection between the ship+bridge=American Government.
No, the American government is complicit!
Why are you talking to a guy that hasn't seen any of the video? This isn't news.
BARILOCHE ARGENTINA
That’s how NBC does news
How did the "expert" miss the explosives blowing up the bridge before impact of the ship? What is in the containers the ship was carrying?
Did she ask him if someone was flicking the lights on and off 😂
Yes. And that's a sure sign they were partying on the ship.
Was P Diddy on the ship
To warn the bridge?
@0:17 Gee... I dunno, maybe it was the massive cargo ship plowing into it
Why was the cargo ship so far off course, even long before the lights went out?
@@steventhury8366 Don't know, don't care. Why are you asking me? Wait for the results of the investigation
The Dali, the ship that caused the crash, has a record preceding it. The same vessel ALSO caused disruptions in Belgium back in 2016
As an engineer you should know, that taking one piece from a bridge shouldn't collapse it.
These accidents, where is ship hits a bridge pillar is more frequent than you think.
However none of the bridges completely collapsed like this one.
Just saying..................
Thanks for adding nothing.
@@Mithranos
"You're welcome"
Enjoy that Bud light!!!
if the bridge was strong the ship would collapse and we would have a discussion about ships quality today
This is what happens when you award construction contracts based on EDI, instead of real qualifications and experience.
Wow!! Traffic will be a big problem. City life can be hard.
One theory is that the ship got some bad fuel that stalled the diesel. The ship restarted but again the diesel died. I've heard that newer bridges would have had barriers out farther from the piers to prevent ships from contacting the piers. Sam at "what's up with shipping" has covered this accident on several videos
It's because they put lndians in charge.
His name is Sal, and the show is called What is Going on With Shipping? 😁😁😉😉
There is no way jet fuel heats up hot enough to make steel beams melt on a bridge!