Baltimore Bridge Collapse and its Impact

By Brent E. Zepke, Esq.

On March 26, 2024, at 1:27 am, the ship Dali hit and destroyed a portion of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on which there were eight workmen (“Baltimore Bridge Collapse Exposes Flawed System Part I” is in SBCurrent, April 8, 2024).

The event exposed the flaw in the 104-year-old Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (46 USC 50101), aka “the Jones Act,” of prohibiting any ship operating between U.S. ports from being built, owned, or operated, by any U.S. company. The Dali, which was built in South Korea, is owned by a company registered in Singapore, leased to a Danish Company, and crewed from India, severely damaged the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Cruise ships covered by the Jones Act include the Walt Disney Company’s cruise line, which is registered in Nassau, Bahamas.  

Impact on the Francis Scott Key Bridge

The Dali caused a half a mile of the 10.9-mile-long bridge to drop into the water along with eight workmen, trapping at least 40 ships in the Port of Baltimore. 

This bridge, built to handle the heavy north-south traffic including trucks, is part of the primary route for transportation from New Jersey, New York, and New England to Virginia and the rest of the southern states.

The Baltimore Harbor Tunnel under the Patapsco River does not permit trucks, so without the bridge the trucks will further compound the already heavy traffic on the Baltimore Beltway. 

Impact on the Port of Baltimore

The collapse of the Key Bridge shut down Baltimore Harbor, which in 2023 handled 52.3 million tons of international cargo worth approximately $80.8 billion, including 750,000 cars and light trucks, directly employed 15,000 and an estimated 139,000 indirectly, generating an estimated $3 billion in personal income. 

There was no mention of what, if anything, was done after the last inspect, in May of 2022, of the bridge being graded as “fair” because of failing 3 of the 9 categories.

Which leads one to wonder who is in charge.

The Port is run by the Maryland Port Administration, whose leader Karenthia A. Barber was appointed by Governor Wes Moore (D), and whose bio lists her experience as being an auditor of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

Responses of the Port, Press, and President Biden 

The Port Commission remained silent although Ms. Barber had posted on the Port’s website that her job is to bring her DEI experience to the Port Commission.

CNN reporter and former FBI agent Andrew McCabe, at sunrise on the 26th, reported that there was no terrorist threat, and FBI Special Agent William DelBagno “concluded” – before any investigation had begun, – that there was no specific or credible info to suggest ties to terrorists.

The Associated Press (AP) could have informed its readers that the bridge was named for Francis Scott Key, who on September 12, 1814, spent the night on a British ship watching it bombard Fort McHenry in the Baltimore Harbor just three weeks after having burned down our nation’s capital, our president’s house, and other government buildings.

Key, the next morning, wrote the poem that became the Star-Spangled Banner.

Instead of those inspiring facts, the AP went woke by writing that the third stanza providing “No refuge could save the hireling and slave, From the terror of the flight or the gloom of the grave, And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave…,” that indicated Key and his family were slave owners who opposed the abolition of slavery.

Journalist Geraldo Rivera did his part by saying that “the migrants were doing a dirty, dangerous job that no Americans would do.” 

Open Borders advocates were concerned that all six workmen who died were referred to as “migrants” or “immigrants” from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.  

President Biden Acts, well, Fast-ish…

Eleven hours after the tragedy, at 12:40 pm, President Joe Biden followed his modus operandi of speaking about himself, which this time was his frequent train trips over the Key Bridge.

However, like so many of his stories about his own adventures, this one made all those who used the bridge, including me, laugh as the reality is that the Key Bridge had no train tracks.

He promised he would get to Baltimore “as soon as possible:”

How soon would that be?

Not on March 26, 27, 28, 29, and of course, there is never anything scheduled for weekends.

Besides daily briefing his schedule from April 1-5 was:

Monday, April 1, hosting the Easter Egg Roll at the White House; Tuesday nothing; Wednesday at 11am, he arrived an hour late, with marks still on his face from his sleep machine c-pack, to deliver “remarks on lowering health care costs in the Indian Room of the White House;” Thursday at 5 pm he hosted “Greek Independence Day Reception” where he said he was known as “Bidenopoulos” in Delaware.

Funny, when I knew him in Delaware, I never heard that one.

On Friday at 12:15 pm, he flew by helicopter the 44-miles to Baltimore where he promised to have Congress pass a bill to have you, and me, providing (borrowing) the money to pay for the reconstruction of the bridge, before leaving at 4:45 for his weekend in Delaware.

This type of schedule is not an aberration as, for April 13-21, his days consist of one hosting leaders from other countries, three campaigning in Pennsylvania and five vacation days in Delaware. 

The Situation

If we would like the impact of March 26, 2024, be to stimulate changes in the system, it appears that we need to replace leaders who only think of themselves and the glorious wonders of DEI until it is time for them to hand us the check, with leaders who will work every day to Make America Great Again.