JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After a container ship rammed into a major bridge in Baltimore, causing it to collapse, some immediately recalled a 2013 incident in Jacksonville when a Navy cargo ship struck the Mathews Bridge. The outcome was much different.
Bridges are lifelines for cities on the water like Baltimore and Jacksonville.
The River City has never had a bridge collapse, but we saw some scary moments in 2013 when a Navy ship being towed by tugboats hit the Mathews Bridge, which connects Downtown and Arlington.
The collision sheared several bolts and dislodged a support beam, forcing the bridge to close for repairs for about a month.
At the time, 56,000 people a day crossed the Mathews Bridge.
The closest thing Florida has seen to the disaster in Baltimore was the collapse of the Sunshine Skyway bridge in the Tampa area in 1980.
A storm blinded a freighter ship’s pilot, which led to the crash that caused a significant chunk of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to fall into the bay.
Six cars, a truck and a Greyhound bus fell 150 feet into the water, and 35 people died in what is considered one of the worst disasters in Tampa Bay history.
In Baltimore, crews are still in emergency mode on a large scale, and rescuers were initially searching for at least seven people.
Two people were rescued from the waters under the Francis Scott Key Bridge, one in serious condition, according to Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace.
The cargo ship crashed into one of the bridge's supports, causing the structure to snap and buckle at several points and tumble into the water in a matter of seconds — a shocking spectacle that was captured on video and posted on social media.
The vessel caught fire, and thick, black smoke billowed out of it.
“Never would you think that you would see, physically see, the Key Bridge tumble down like that. It looked like something out of an action movie,” said Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, calling it “an unthinkable tragedy."
The fire chief said authorities “may be looking for upwards of seven people” but said that number could change. It was not clear if the two rescued were included in the seven.
Sonar has indicated that there are vehicles in the water, where the temperature was about 47 degrees Fahrenheit in the early hours of Tuesday, according to a buoy that collects data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Earlier, Kevin Cartwright, director of communications for the Baltimore Fire Department, told The Associated Press that several vehicles were on the bridge at the time, including one the size of a tractor-trailer truck. The collapse happened in the middle of the night when traffic would be lighter than during the day when thousands of cars traverse the span.
He called the collapse a “developing mass casualty event,” though he didn't know at the time how many people were affected.
Cartwright added that some cargo appeared to be dangling from the bridge, which spans the Patapsco River at the entrance to a busy harbor. The river leads to the Port of Baltimore, a major hub for shipping on the East Coast. Opened in 1977, the bridge is named for the writer of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Synergy Marine Group — which owns and manages the ship called the Dali — confirmed the vessel hit a pillar of the bridge at about 1:30 a.m. while two pilots were in control. It said all crew members, including the pilots, were accounted for and there are no reports of any injuries.
The Dali was headed from Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and flying under a Singapore flag, according to data from Marine Traffic. The container ship is about 985 feet long and about 157 feet wide, according to the website.