There are six men presumed dead in this horrible catastrophe. Thanks to the quick work of the Baltimore Police, cars were removed from the bridge before its collapse. Sadly, six construction workers who were filling potholes remained on the bridge. They were hardworking men with families who hail from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, some of whom have lived here for nearly twenty years.
So let’s dispense with the stupidity of the Right Wing Media positing that the bridge collapse was the result of issues on the border and focus on what this collapse means to the US and its economy.
“This is one of the cathedrals of American infrastructure. The path to normalcy will not be easy, it will not be quick, it will not be inexpensive, but we will rebuild together.” US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
Cargo ships are stranded, and much of Baltimore’s shipping infrastructure has come to a halt because of the bridge collapse. Goods will not move soon.
The Port of Baltimore is crucial to moving European cars and light trucks. Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and BMW all have operating facilities in and around the port. The port is also the second-largest terminal for US coal exports.
Baltimore is crucial to the farming industry. The port is the largest entry point in the U.S. for large agriculture and construction equipment such as tractors, combines, forklifts, and bulldozers bound for the Midwest. This will affect Midwest farmers who are preparing to put crops in the ground, as well as construction projects slated to begin now that the weather on the East Coast is improving.
Roughly 15,000 jobs depend directly on the port, while nearly 140,000 jobs are linked to its activities.
The concept of a global supply chain was not a conversation at the dinner table for most until Covid. While many of those chains have begun functioning, other worldwide events still impact our supply chains. A drought in Panama has lowered the water in the Canal, affecting traffic in that part of the world. Missile attacks in the Red Sea by Yemen-based Houthi militants have also affected trade. This catastrophe will only add to the problems.
It isn’t just cargo. About 35,000 people use the bridge daily, and according to the Maryland Department of Transportation, the value of goods that go over the Francis Scott Key bridge amounts to about 28 billion dollars annually.
Docks in New Jersey and Virginia will take some of the slack from Baltimore. There will also likely be a shift towards the West Coast to avoid bottlenecks along the Eastern Seaboard. The issue at hand is that a sudden 10% to 20% increase in volumes through a port is enough to cause massive backlogs and congestion.
The city of Baltimore, which is slowly coming out of a financial decline due to the loss of the steel industry, will suffer the most. The bridge shutdown will harshly affect Tech and other growing industries in the area. Because of this, Baltimore and Maryland both declared a state of emergency.
As people watch the horrifying videos, we must not forget the men whose lives were lost and the families that mourn them. We also need to be prepared for supply interruptions we never anticipated.
We live in a very interconnected world; this is an excellent example of how we rely on people and places we often know very little about.
The real story here is how was a major bridge like this built in the 1970s that lacks the kind of safety fender systems the San Francisco Bay Bridge has? This was an infrastructure design disaster. For more on this aspect of the event follow the link below.
https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/the-day-a-cargo-ship-crashed-into-sf-bay-bridge/