It has been a year now, just today, that we all awoke to the news that the Key Bridge in Baltimore had collapsed after being hit by a humungous freighter ship. I am fortunate enough to have friends all over the world, thanks to the interwebs, and so I was jarred wide awake that morning to find a slew of texts from across many seas, asking if I was all right. "Dude! Tell me you're ok! I heard the bridge fell down in your town!" read one of them, from a friend in Turkey. So there I was, a little past five in the yawning, turning on the morning local news, and seeing an array of attractive, but stunned, faces, telling us the awful news. What once seemed impossible, not just unlikely, had occurred.
So many thoughts racing through so many minds. Most tragically, six men died when they were dropped into the water below along with their work truck. That was six too many deaths, but just think how many there would have been had the ship hit the bridge at the peak of morning rush hour?
Businesses were/are disrupted. People whose commute from the east side of Baltimore County to Anne Arundel County, or vice versa, now have a much longer ride.
The shipping channel was closed for a time, setting off ripple effects of supply problems across the nation.
But last December, Congress set aside money for disaster relief, including two billion for replacing the bridge.
A design for that replacement has been unveiled; construction is soon to get underway, with assurances that the project will be done by 2028 and will incorporate the latest structural protection technology.
And on the day it opens, I will send pictures to my friends around the world. All stories should have happy endings and new beginnings.
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