The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed in the early morning hours of Tuesday, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority. The cause of the collapse was a container ship striking a column, which sent the bridge into the water of the Patapsco River below. The entire thing was captured on video during a livestream.
The YouTube livestream, maintained by StreamTime Live, is one of at least nine currently broadcasting, with others that show places like New York Harbor, Port Huron in Michigan, and Chicago’s Midway Airport. The livestream didn’t capture any audio of the bridge collapse in Baltimore.
The Associated Press reports that several vehicles have fallen into the water, a claim that seems supported by the video evidence. But there’s no official word yet on whether any people were on the bridge when it collapsed. Early reports from the Baltimore Sun indicate there may have been at least seven construction workers on the bridge when it was hit but that hasn’t been confirmed.
Video shared by the news aggregator Raw Alerts on X appeared to show another angle on the bridge collapse, with someone in the background shouting obscenities. And while it looks like the same bridge collapse, it’s not clear who originally captured the video. Aggregator accounts on X often post images and video without explaining their sources, which tends to allow misinformation to spread in a breaking news situation.
Adam Parker, an open source investigator from the UK’s Sky News identified the container ship that hit the bridge as the Singapore-flagged Dali. It’s not immediately clear what the condition of the ship may be, nor how many crew may have been on board.
The mayor of Baltimore, Brandon M. Scott, tweeted early Tuesday we was in contact with the governor of Maryland as well as emergency responders. And local traffic has been alerted to avoid the southeast corridor of I-695.
“MAJOR BALTIMORE TRAFFIC ALERT: AVOID I-695 southeast corridor. I-695 Key Bridge collapse due to ship strike. Active scene. Use I-95 or I-895,” Maryland Transportation Authority tweeted at 3:20 a.m. ET.
The four-lane Francis Scott Key Bridge, often shortened to just the Key Bridge and named for the author of the National Anthem, opened in 1977 and stretches 1.6-miles.
This is a developing news story and will be updated.
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