-
Jim(dainisjg) posted an update Wednesday, Mar 27, 2024, 10:45pm EDT, 1 month, 1 week ago
That ship striking a bridge in Baltimore and causing it to collapse reminded me of a similar incident back in my seafaring days. I was first engineer on a heavy lift ship called the "Transcolumbia". She was built with massive 30 inch diameter steel booms that could lift up to 200 tons. We were passing under a lift bridge with the booms in a vertical position. One of the booms struck the bridge as we were passing under. There was enough force that it actually bent the 30 inch steel boom but the bridge did not collapse. I guess they built that bridge a lot stronger. An investigation determined that the bridge was at fault. It had not been raised to the maximum height before our ship tried to pass under.