President Joe Biden promised the federal government will pay to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge and insisted it was an accident.
Biden vowed to move ‘heaven and earth’ to reopen one of the world’s busiest ports after a ship lost power and destroyed the bridge across the Patapsco River at the mouth of Baltimore Harbor.
‘We will get it up and running again as soon as possible. 15,000 jobs depend on that port. And we are going to do everything we can to protect those jobs,” Biden said in remarks at the White House.
“I am ordering my team to move heaven and earth three, open the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as possible,” he said.
Divers were still searching for six construction workers who were fixing potholes on the bridge and are missing.
“We’re going to get it up and running again as soon as possible,” President Joe Biden said.
‘My intention is for the federal government to pay the full cost of rebuilding that bridge. I hope Congress will support my effort; this will take some time. The people of Baltimore can count on us to support them every step of the way,” Biden said.
“We will not leave until this job is finished,” he added.
He said he was not going to wait for an investigation to see if the ship was at fault before rebuilding the bridge.
‘We’re not going to wait for that to happen. “We’re going to pay upfront to build the bridge and reopen it,” Biden said.
Biden was briefed early Tuesday morning by his team about the collapse. He also met with senior staff where he directed that all federal resources be made available to assist in the ongoing search and rescue efforts and response to this incident, the White House said.
‘Everything so far indicates that it was a terrible accident. At this time we have no other indication, no other reason to believe that there has been any intentional act here,’ the president said.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore declared a state of emergency on Tuesday morning following the catastrophic collision, which occurred around 1:30 a.m. The ship, the Singapore-flagged Dali, had been traveling for 20 minutes when she crashed into a support column on the bridge.
The Democrat said the ship’s crew managed to issue a mayday call before it crashed into the bridge, allowing officials to prevent cars from passing over the bridge.
“We’re thankful that between Mayday and the collapse we had officials who were able to start stopping the flow of traffic so there were no more cars on the bridge,” Moore said.
Initially, officials feared drivers would become submerged in their cars in the Patapsco River. But the ship’s warning gave officials enough time to stop traffic at both ends of the bridge.
The people who blocked traffic “certainly saved lives,” President Biden said.
Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul J. Wiedefeld said eight people were on the bridge when it collapsed, and two of them were rescued from the water, one refused medical treatment and the other was taken to the hospital.
The White House tweeted a photo of President Joe Biden being briefed on the bridge collapse.
Baltimore officials are racing to save up to 20 people who plunged into the Patapsco River after a Singapore freighter crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
An injured person was photographed being loaded into an ambulance after being taken off the ship following the collapse.
Stunning images show the moment the ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, sending the colossal steel structure into the Patapsco River.
The bridge spans 9,000 feet over the Patapsco River and is 180 feet above the water.
Maryland authorities are using sonar detection devices to search for crew members who fell into 47F water while working to repair potholes in the 185-foot bridge when it collapsed.
Authorities said they have detected five vehicles submerged underwater thanks to infrared and side-scan sonar technology: three passenger vehicles, a cement truck and a fifth vehicle.
Those vehicles are believed to have belonged to the construction crew and were parked on the bridge.
The video shows the ship going dark seconds before the collision, suggesting a power outage on board. The crew of 22 remains on board and is now being questioned by the Coast Guard.
The rescue effort incorporates Coast Guard ships, local police ships, the Baltimore Fire Department, volunteer fire departments from surrounding areas, as well as teams of divers as the desperate search for survivors continues.
FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Baltimore office, William DelBagno, said there is “no specific or credible information to suggest there are links to terrorism in this incident.”
The collapse is sure to create a logistical nightmare for months, if not years, for the East Coast, shutting down ship traffic at the Port of Baltimore and snarling cargo and passenger traffic.
Governor Wes Moore declared a state of emergency Tuesday morning following the catastrophic collision around 1:30 a.m.
An aerial view of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge after the collision
The ship involved is the 948-foot-long Dali, a Singapore-flagged container that could be seen on ship-tracking websites placed under the bridge after the accident.
It left Baltimore’s Seagirt Marine Terminal at 12:24 a.m., and at 1:25 a.m. it began to slow and veer off course. The video shows lights going out on board just before the accident.
The Dali ship was headed to Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is not clear what load she was carrying. The ship was due to land in Asia on April 27.
According to the ship’s owners, all crew members were accounted for and no injuries were reported.
About 30,000 vehicles use the bridge, named after the author of the Star Spangled Banner, each day. It was inaugurated in 1977.
Biden noted that he has been through it many times.
“I have traveled many, many times from the state of Delaware by train and by car,” he said.