271–280 of 1001 posts
Video here https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1772514015790477667
While this tweet is factual, be very careful with this account in general, is has turned from a good source to a very slanted and biased fake-news-accelerator.
Somehow I find it surprising how completely the bridge collapsed after the damage. I understand that a container ship collision is serious, but you could imagine a scenarios where the bridge slumps or buckles but doesn’t just disintegrate like that. It’s surprising that ships capable of doing this damage were probably regularly driving past it, and its safety as a thoroughfare depended entirely on those collisions no…
Not that it matters to anyone else, but having driven across that bridge dozens of times with my kids, this is just shocking. It’s one of the main corridors in the area. Thank god it happened in the middle of the night, though that’ll be no consolation to the families of those who may have died.
Local to the area. This was devastating news to wake up to. I don't know what's wrong with me but seeing this and knowing there were casualties made me cry. Edit: Maybe I'm just tired and need more sleep.
I think that's called "having feelings". Nothing wrong with it.
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You could try to avoid collisions with barriers, or make the bridge fail differently (only a few spans), or make it tolerant to a single support failing. But you need a pretty beefy steel beam to survive a direct hit by... Uh... 200,000t(??) traveling even at a slow jogging pace. (And then it transfers the energy into the rest of the bridge, which will very much not like it). I guess we can be happy failure like this…
Some other bridges have barriers around, but not connecting to the pylons.
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Because the Port of Baltimore is a very major port, and not allowing ships under it really isn't an option. Vertical clearance for ship traffic might have been the reason this kind of bridge was built in the first place. Otherwise, something lower and more causeway-like might have been sufficient.
If it's a very major port, they can afford to make it a tunnel.
Interesting use of the passive voice. Wasn't it clear from the start that it was hit by a ship?
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Interested in this claim, because it sounds about right, except that I can’t name a bridge constructed in the past 50 years. The bridges we can all name are pushing 100+ right?
Mackinac Bridge is somewhat famous, built in the 1950s. They more or less do continuous maintenance during the warmer months of the year. (So older than 50, but younger than 100)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zilwaukee_Bridge
Sticking with the mid-western therme, the Chicago Skyway was built in 1958
Somehow I find it surprising how completely the bridge collapsed after the damage. I understand that a container ship collision is serious, but you could imagine a scenarios where the bridge slumps or buckles but doesn’t just disintegrate like that. It’s surprising that ships capable of doing this damage were probably regularly driving past it, and its safety as a thoroughfare depended entirely on those collisions no…
There are cities with skyscrapers near airports, which depend on the airplanes not hitting the skyscrapers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least in the links with the video now you can see that the container ship directly hits one of the two main (and in the central area only) pillars completely collapsing it. No matter(1) the engineering there is no pretty much way to not lose the whole large middle area and left area leading to the destroyed pillar in that situation. Such a collapse crates so much force (tension vibrations etc.) so that the collaps…
It certainly does not seem reasonable to design a bridge pillar to withstand a direct impact from a massive cargo ship. But I guess I thought that maybe there was... typically some kind of earthen buffer around the pillar to prevent such an impact? That's probably impractical too, I guess. I guess I just didn't realize ~$1bn bridges were one fluky ship accident away from total collapse at any given time. I think mayb…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge#/media/...
Didn’t waterway authorities (in the U.S.) used to require tugs to navigate large ships under bridges?
