The collision of a cargo ship, which was traveling slower than a cyclist, caused significant destruction. The ship crashed into a pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge with a force comparable to a rocket launch, leading to the collapse of the bridge’s middle section and six deaths.
The New York Times tried to understand how a cargo ship moving at such a slow speed could cause immense damage. The paper estimated that slowing down a full cargo ship would have required a force of at least 12 million Newtons, if not more than 100 million Newtons. Experts debated whether any bridge could withstand such an impact. One professor believed that most bridges would be damaged, while another thought it was possible to design a bridge that could withstand such a collision.
The incident highlighted the importance of rigorous engineering standards and infrastructure design to prevent similar disasters in the future. It sparked further conversations around safety measures for bridges and potential risks posed by collisions involving large cargo ships.
