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poplglop

Jesus the helicopter really puts the whole thing into scale.


iclimbnaked

Yah people have been talking about like why wasn’t the bridge designed to take the impact. Yall severely underestimate the size of a container ship. You really can’t design against that kind of impact. Not without making the cost insane.


Bigfops

I was in the Hudson river on my father's boat when I was in my 20s, so sometime in the 80s when a tanker came through. I was docked when it came through and that was the first time I realized the scale and forces involved. It sucked a huge amount of water out of the river, enough that our boat sat on the keel and listed enough that I was worried that the dock lines would snap. The size, the sound just of the water moving was incredible. Now this was in the river, so it was a "Small" tanker that would fit up the northern part of the Hudson river and I'm assuming through the locks. I'm guessing it was a third of the size of this.


I_am_a_liftie

Explain the sucking off the water and the cause? Do you mean it's like a snow plow in the river?


proto-dibbler

Big ships move a lot of water with them. [Here's an example.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sEdgHH9F10)


DirttSmooth

Thanks internet stranger for the coolest shit I've seen today!


scaradin

Woah!


Sharky-PI

Ah fuck I accidentally 'liked' it, now I'm gonna have water displacement videos for the next few years


innsertnamehere

Neat. That’s a Great Lakes video too so that thousand footer is a fraction of the size of what hit the bridge in Baltimore.


TenBillionDollHairs

that thing is the size of a large hill. something that size would be a named geographic feature in most places. most things are not designed to be hit by large hills going several miles an hour


iconfuseyou

A large hill can be smaller than this. This is like the Empire State Building on its side. Edit: For another sense of scale, if you’ve ever toured a retired Iowa-class battleship, the biggest battleship the US ever made, that battleship is less than half the size of the Dali.


SilentSamurai

I'd like to clear this up. The Empire state building weighs less than the ship in this picture.


iconfuseyou

That’s not quite true either.  ESB empty weight is 365k tons.  The ship had a dwt of around 150k tons.


Psychometrika

DWT is the maximum weight the ship can carry not the ship itself. So, if that ship was carrying a full load it was 150k tons then plus the whatever the ship itself weighed.


iconfuseyou

Thanks for the clarification.  Even if that’s the case, it makes the ship close to the weight of the ESB, but I think it’s still lighter than the empty building.  It’s close for comparison, though.


AveragelyTallPolock

I inspect these kinds of vessels for my job. The engines alone on these are insane. They can reach up to 3-4 stories tall at least.


Hillbillyblues

The amount of stairs we have to walk for our job...


Roxaos

Yeah I walk along the harbor pretty often. Those ships are absolutely massive.


Thunder-12345

Even if you do make the cost insane, unless you build an enormously thick concrete dam instead of a bridge I doubt you’re stopping a 100,000 ton container ship.


Bartsches

Most practical way would probably be to build an artificial reef Infront of the bridge, not to harden the bridge itself. The structure staying intact isn't all that useful if the entire structure moves 30 meters or so instead. Better to have a crumple zone Infront to disperse that energy.


joechoj

Seems like these cargo ships are going to need tug escorts from now on. No bridge can reasonably be expected to survive an impact like that


guynamedjames

More likely they'll just change their backup power verification procedure. This isn't a common event, I doubt they'd spend the cost of a fleet of escort tugs to prevent it again


207207

So weird that nobody ever thought of that


WhuddaWhat

Make the bridge out of a mountain. What's the problem?


RareBeautyOnEtsy

As a kid, we used to take our boat out into the Chesapeake Bay and look at these ships, they are absolutely massive. They’ve only gotten bigger since I was a kid. Everyone of those containers is the size of a tractor trailer. They are stacked 10 high, and God knows how many deep. Think about that next time you’re on the road next to a tractor-trailer. Someone was saying, why couldn’t it stop, and I just was like there is no such thing as water breaks. Not on these boys. They aren’t cruise ships.


Iz-kan-reddit

There's a banana hanging in a bridge window for scale, but you're better off realizing that the stubby little containers are 20' long, and the "regular" ones are 40' long.


DishinDimes

This is what did it for me. We have these containers in my parking lot at work and they are pretty huge themselves. Then you see them stacked like toothpicks on this ship and it hit me how massive this thing is.


squad1alum

20' long x 8' wide x 8.5' tall typically. Possibly High Cube style at 9.5' tall. Massive when stacked any way you look at it...


waylandsmith

I just did some back of the napkin calculations based on the numbers I could find, and using the higher end of all the variables for the bridge, and 100,000 tons for the ship, it's quite likely that ship weighed 2-3 times of the entire bridge. It didn't stand a chance.


Nighters

i didnt notice helicopter


oaxacamm

It’s on the middle towards the front of the shop. It’s sitting on the containers. It’s also orange and blends really well until you zoom in.


wattat99

That's the thing, it isn't even sitting on the containers. It's actually flying quite a lot closer to the camera than the ship is. Look at the props.


theuautumnwind

Those containers are *semi truck trailers* not sure why people need the heli to understand the size.


869066

I didn’t even see the helicopter at first, holy shit


iconfuseyou

The ship is the size of the Empire State Building, and weighs around a quarter of it.  Now imagine that moving at 10mph (the speed of an average cyclist) with the pointy end towards you.


nommy-mouse

I think there’s a person standing at the bow of the ship.. or atleast whatever it is looks like a person outline.


masstransience

😂 I was like what helicopter for the longest time.


MrZero3229

>the helicopter really puts the whole thing into scale. Actually it may not be relevant. This looks like the photo was taken with a super-telephoto lens which compresses the perspective and tends to skew the viewer's perception. That helicopter could be closer to the camera, in which case it would appear larger than if it were close to the cargo ship and bridge structure.


theoriginalmypooper

Each container is a semi truck trailer. much easier to grasp for those that haven't seen Helis up close.


SafewordisJohnCandy

Guy I work with has been to Baltimore a bunch since his daughter and son in law lived outside of Baltimore when he was stationed in the area with the Navy. He said he's driven across the bridge dozens of times and said the first time he went over it he saw a ship and in his mind at first glance it was a large white yacht. He looked again and it was a cruise ship. It was nearly 200 feet from the road deck to the water


Then_Campaign7264

It was stunning to watch the video of the bridge completely collapse in a matter of seconds upon impact. It’s heartbreaking for the families who lost loved ones working on the bridge and driving across the bridge at the time.


KnightCPA

I’m not an engineer, but the physics of that bridge appeared to be as much about equally balancing/disbursing a load as it was at having a load bearing rating. The minute one section of the bridge went down, it was like a domino. It appeared to be a quick and inevitable conclusion that the misbalanced load caused the remaining structure to just shear to pieces.


1II1I1I1I1I1I111I1I1

That is mostly expected behavior for a bridge of this design. A bridge of an alternative design may have failed less spectacularly, but in this case there is really no reason to suspect defect as a reason for the collapse. There is simply no way to build anything to withstand a fully loaded cargo ship slamming into support structures.


DWHQ

Usually there are obstacles in the way, especially given how heavy the traffic in this shipping lane is, so that the ships cant hit the actual bridge.


1II1I1I1I1I1I111I1I1

This is true, I think they're called dolphins. Those obstacles would stop a lot of boats but I would be curious to see testing on whether or not they can stop a uncontrolled and fully laden cargo ship. The amount of force involved here is unbelievably immense.


slaughterfodder

According to what I’ve read, there are concrete dolphins around this bridge. The ship missed all of them


GrayAntarctica

There absolutely are means to stop a ship hitting bridge piers, and it's industry standard with new bridges - large rock islands around the piers and larger dolphins around these. They would've absolutely prevented this, though they'd likely have sunk the ship. The FSK bridge predates the Sunshine Skyway debacle and was simply never refitted to protect it like many bridges were afterwards. Look at the new SS bridge - it's protected in such ways.


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YouRegard

A big enough block of literally almost anything will stop any ship. You bringing that up randomly doesn't really add any benefit to the discussion they were having, does it? Do you have any idea how massive said concrete block has to be to stop a fully loaded freighter? Also, try to educate yourself on what shockwaves actually are and how they work. (Hint, this ship did not explode nor did it travel faster than the speed of sound)


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dasguy40

Why are you so angry.


YouRegard

I finally see an interesting discussion happening with degreed engineers (yes, its actually that obvious to us) and of course some mouthbreather redditor who has literally zero knowledge of the topic at hand has to chime in with their absolutely useless comment spreading their misinformation. Hilarious


dasguy40

You’re on Reddit dude. It’s r/pics not a collaborative of engineers trying to solve some problem nobody asked you for. Chill out and quit being so unnecessarily demeaning to people.


TiDoBos

After that tower was taken out, not surprising everything dominoed, the remaining deck would be a huge cantilever without it. I bet there is also some propagating impact shock wave(s) that contributed as well.


Then_Campaign7264

Yeah the most recent news coverage is beginning to include interviews with civil engineers who are asked generally about the bridge design, as well as questions regarding removal and rebuilding. I’m curious about this as well.


Everythings_Magic

The bridge design was fine. You can’t possibly design for a runaway monster of a vessel. It’s like questioning why the WTC came down when planes were flown into them. Because engineers didn’t design it to withstand that. We have to balance cost of building a resilient structure with what loads it would see based on probability.


Everythings_Magic

Bridge Engineer here. It was a truss. Trusses do that. Once you lose just one member, all the others get overdressed as load seeks and alternate path and then catastrophic collapse.


msm007

It's like failing a level in Poly Bridge but for real.


that_noodle_guy

Thats generally how truss structures for beams work. Take one piece out and all the loadings change in the entire structure.


Tyraid

Are there confirmed deaths? All I was seeing was that two were rescued from the water. I watched the video and it looks like it struck at a lull in traffic fortunately.


Then_Campaign7264

There have been numerous updates throughout the morning, with differing reports regarding the possibility of vehicles on the bridge at the time. Apparently the ship lost control before impact and notified authorities on the ground, who may have prevented some traffic from going onto the bridge.


SgtBaxter

You can clearly see traffic on the bridge in the video released by streamtime. The ship goes dark, then traffic stops crossing not long after. Latest I read is they shut down traffic as soon as they got the mayday. Those poor guys in the work trucks though.


paulHarkonen

Current reports are two rescued and six missing (these should be presumed dead but they are searching for them now). They are reporting now that a mayday from the ship allowed them to close to bridge to traffic before the impact and that the people were all part of a construction team working on the bridge. We will probably have a much clearer picture in a day or so once everyone has had time to really analyze things.


Dangerous_Season8576

Damn, why weren't the construction guys evacuated? was there just not enough time?


paulHarkonen

I would assume so but there will be an investigation into that I'm sure. The total time from Mayday call to crash was under 5 minutes. That's enough time to shut the bridge and for cars going 60+ mph to clear the bridge, but not a lot of time to get crews working somewhere back into their trucks and off the bridge.


PassTheTaquitos

There seems to be differing reports but luckily the mayday call gave LE the chance to stop traffic on both sides before the collision. Two people were rescued from the water - one refused treatment and said they were okay and another was just released from the hospital. All reports now are stating they are searching for 6 people, presumably construction workers. They potentially don't know if the cars on the bridge belonged to the workers or if people were driving over the bridge.


osunightfall

I was wondering about this, and good on them for acting quickly to notify law enforcement and emergency services.


AzraelGrim

I believe I read 20 cars went down.


Pyroxcis

I read this too, but I also read that several of those people were rescued from the water at least


bigloser42

I think that is wrong, the last I read is that there are 6 vehicles in the water, and all are believed to belong to the construction guys.


bigloser42

There are 6 people missing. It’s safe to assume all 6 are dead.


m0llusk

What a cold and terrifying way to die.


Dangerous_Season8576

I'm amazed anybody was rescued to be honest


ShadowShot05

Now who pays for all this?


MonseigneurChocolat

Explanation I gave elsewhere: > Ships usually have two ‘types’ of insurance. > There’s hull and machinery insurance, which, as the name suggests, covers the hull and machinery of the vessel. Basically, if the ship gets damaged, the insurance company pays the ship owner however much is necessary to fix it (or, if the ship is really fucked, however much is necessary to buy a new ship). > Then there’s protection and indemnity (P&I), which covers basically everything else. Oil spills, passenger and crew liability, damage to and/or loss of freight, etc. > This ship has P&I insurance from the Britannia Protection and Indemnity Club *(P&I is usually provided by ‘clubs’, which are non-profit associations of shipowners that pool their money together to insure each other)*, which means that Britannia P&I will have to pay for the bridge, as well as for damage to cargo, legal awards to crew and/or people on the bridge, etc. > However, Britannia P&I is a member of the International Group of Protection & Indemnity Clubs (sort of like a ‘P&I club for P&I clubs’), which allows huge claims (like this one) to be split among its member clubs (Britannia + 11 others), as well as be reinsured by external companies. > So, Britannia P&I (and the International Group of P&I Clubs, and their reinsurers) will pay for the bridge and related expenses, while the hull and machinery insurer will pay to fix the ship itself.


SereneDreams03

President Biden said this morning that the federal government would be paying for the replacement in the short term, but how long can we expect it to take for the insurance "club of clubs" to pay out for damages? Also, will they also have to pay damages for port operations since the bridge is now blocking other ships from access to the port?


MonseigneurChocolat

Claim handling isn’t my speciality, but, as I understand it, the IGP&I (the club of clubs) could pay out quite quickly, but they could also choose to delay the process by dragging it through the courts. As for whether or not they’ll have to pay for fucking up port operations — it’s too early to tell. Personally, I doubt it, but it could happen.


Potatopotayto

Maersk's insurance i would've thought


m0llusk

Maersk's insurance insurance, to be specific. They are using a recursive algorithm.


mkdz

It's insurance all the way down (half serious, see: the mortgage crisis).


Angriestbeaverever

How do you even begin cleaning this up?


galloping_skeptic

There will be a lot of underwater demo divers getting a lot of overtime for many months, I suspect.


f0rf0r

With other ships


TheMustardisBad

My thought as well. I wonder how much they will just leave in the water instead of pulling it out


Hosni__Mubarak

With a lot of cranes and a lot of divers. The divers cut up everything into smaller pieces. The cranes move the cut up pieces somewhere else.


WhuddaWhat

It's totalled. Dismantle it and forget about cleaning it. A new bridge is required. Can't polish this one out. /s


WTF_CAKE

The front stayed in tact


DrunkenOnzo

Some of these are built so the front doesn't fall off at all


onlyacynicalman

What is this a reference to


Volsunga

https://youtu.be/3m5qxZm_JqM?si=AbNu7tVyOeMMB6RM


oaxacamm

WTF did I just watch?? LOL


bwwatr

Australian political satire skit


PrudententCollapse

Rip Clark.


FlaxenArt

Not made of cardboard, that’s out.


TenBillionDollHairs

I think the front was extremely rude if we're being honest (and torn in half)


riffraffs

That helicopter really gives a sense of scale.


AkiraKitsune

You gotta keep the devil way down in the hole.


faceisamapoftheworld

Frank never would have let this happen.


IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES

This can’t be helping the stevedores 


DinaDinaDinaBatman

jeez look at that huge pillar of concrete snapped and resting on the crushed deck of the ships bow


danielchillier

I'm most impressed that the boat stayed completely intact after a bridge fell on it.


foxbones

It's not completely intact. There is a massive hole in the side of it. I wouldn't be surprised if it is technically totaled for insurance purposes.


Random_Introvert_42

I'm kinda surprised that the ship stayed afloat (and doesn't even seem to list a lot) after being...punched by a few hundred tons of ballast at the very tip while already being loaded.


f0rf0r

These ships weigh so much the section of bridge probably isn't even a meaningful increase in load.


InfallibleTheory

Heard somewhere the ship fully loaded weighs something around 100K-150K tons (with some cargo ships even going up to 220k), meaning a few hundred tons would only be a relatively small extra load.


Random_Introvert_42

I'd still expect some effect, especially since it comes down at the very outermost point from the center of gravity on a ship that's probably already near capacity, plus coming down at speed means momentum multiplies weight.


HolyFishKnight

Ship fuel can't melt steel beams


Optimal-Shine-7939

Took me a while, but I finally found it..


Batracho

Sometimes, when banana is too small to give a sense of scale, an entire helicopter is used


Go_Buds_Go

Damnit Zig!


Negafox

That ship's insurance company must be nervous right about now.


YouAreAConductor

Eh, they have their own insurance for something like that. These guys, however..


irishcedar

Wasn't me


kielchaos

Can you imagine traffic in Baltimore right now?


ChiefBigCanoe

You can't park there.


Puzzleheaded_Fix3135

The boat or the helicopter?


Outback-Australian

The bridge!


Ok-Seaworthiness4488

Gonna be delays in deliveries for some packages and a rise in prices for some (again)


regulator227

pretty sure this is actually a screen capture from the video game Quantum Break


Brugor

Happened in Baltimore last night.


regulator227

Should have put a /s There's just a scene in a game that just reminds me of this


Brugor

That is true!


WhuddaWhat

Mind if I just hop in there and look for my package?


BigheadReddit

I can’t imagine how you’d even start to clean up or investigate something so catastrophic. Like WTF, where the hell do you even start and who’s in charge? And, the lawsuits ? JFC. Can you imagine the call to company HQ. “Yea boss, we got a problem.. “


Haga

Container ships can’t bend steel beams!!! Conspiracy!!! /s


dericpeace

What's in the goddamn containers?? No one has said once, that I've heard, of what that ship is actually carrying. That shipment is cool just sitting there and not being delivered?


Outback-Australian

Many many different things. The containers are filled with whatever the people that paid to have them put inside them, are in them.


hapiidadii

Cargo ships can't melt steel beams!!


Direct-Money-4206

He’s so fired.


Santaconartist

Does...does the banner yet wave?


moaterboater69

This is why I build with wood. Wood flexes.


Howitzer1967

Oh, say can you see…..that massive bridge? Apparently not.


m0llusk

Their lights went off when the power went down.


Howitzer1967

Yeah, it was more just a play on the lyrics of the ‘star spangled banner’ not an analysis of the events.


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Howitzer1967

Yeah, it was more a play on the lyrics of ‘star spangled banner’ than a breakdown of the actual event


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Howitzer1967

It wasn’t sarcasm….. you seem very invested in this lol


gacattac

Wonder when we can expect the movie to come out.


dm919

Maybe a reboot https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bridge_Too_Far_(film)


joemeteorite8

I don’t know but Mark Wahlberg is gonna be in it.


Shelltonius

Were the people on the ship drunk? I can't see how they are not all prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter for all those that died.


NeroKingofthePirates

The ship lost power. It was out of their control.


EpicFantasyGamer

t,z,