A normal month in Baltimore, my family’s home for the past 21 years, is difficult enough—high crime, high poverty, high taxes, old schools, old infrastructure, and questionable governance. In a city full of decent, hard-working souls these chronic urban problems hit some residents much harder than others.
Then a massive cargo ship catastrophically careens off course and takes out the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the middle of the night sending multiple people plunging into the ice cold Patapsco River, but shutting down the Port of Baltimore for an indefinite period of time, and likely crippling regional traffic flow and commerce for months or years.
Beyond the loss of lives, all port activity will now grind to a halt since this is the only way in and out of the area.
"The channel is going to be closed. That means any of the larger vessels that are in the Inner Harbor Port of Baltimore-inside of the Key Bridge-are going to remain there until further notice. All the other ships coming up the Chesapeake Bay are going to have to go on anchorage or divert to another port."
For 13 straight years, the port has led the nation in importing and exporting cars and light trucks.
The port supports about 15,300 direct jobs, according to the state, and another 140,000 jobs are linked to activity at the port.
A major highway reconstruction project on the west side of the I-695 loop-the Baltimore Beltway-commenced this past Monday.
Given the bridge collapse on the southeast side of the loop, this stretch of highway will presumably handle even more car traffic than normal plus more north-south truck traffic that isn't allowed to go through either the Baltimore Harbor or Fort McHenry tunnels.
https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/baltimore-takes-it-on-the-chinagain
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