Baltimore Bridge | Collapse animation

On Mar 26 the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore Maryland collapsed. A container ship the Dali lost power and demolished the south west main support pier.
This recreated animation sequence is based on a frame by frame matching of the video.

[@bruh_hahaha]

Excellent work! This is fascinating and horrible all at once.

[@Mike-Bell]

Thank you very much!

[@maudessen573]

Well done, Mike. I appreciate the opportunity to view from different vantage points, and with daylight lighting. This collapse has been nearly as horrifying to many people as the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo in Florida. Everybody drives across bridges, and it’s terrifying to think of how quickly a collapse could occur without offering any recourse. The PD was very effective at stopping bridge traffic in record time, but not fast enough to save the workers. I hope they didn’t suffer.

[@sandis52]

Amazing 3D work. Just amazing.

[@Mike-Bell]

Glad you think so!

[@runedegard]

Being a naval architect, I notice the pronounced flare of the ship's bow, being typical for all ships designed for carrying containers on deck (requiring max beam up close to the bow in order to facilitate more deck areal for containers). This means that the impact with the A-shaped pillars (viewed from the ship) was at THE SHIP's DECK LEVEL while the slimmer hull at the waterline was clear of the concrete base. Pay close attention to the ship collision with bridge's pillars. Strangely there are no plumes of concrete dust emanating from the impact point at the deck level of the ship. However, it seems like the four pillars are all demolished at their base simultaneously. Plumes of concrete dust can clearly be seen shooting away at the base, far below the actual impact level. Not just on the inclined pillars facing the ship, but strangely enough also on the ones facing away from the impact. Video taken by drones in daylight of the damaged bridge, shows that all the four A-shaped concrete pillars were snapped off at the base where they trancend into the solid river-bed concrete slab.

[@Mike-Bell]

Thanks. Great comment

[@fu2201]

Good work as usual Mike, I was waiting for this. I cant believe in 1977, knowing that that area was as busy as it is that they didn't build bumpers for it. I bet it was a cost saver. Now the money they saved will be paid out in lawsuits plus some.

[@keithmurphy6243]

If you look at modern photos of the bridge you will see four concrete dolphins. In place to help,prevent a collision with the bridge which unfortunately were missed by the ship in this instance.

[@bfa-xi1py]

@@keithmurphy6243 Dolphins too far away, pier was not wide enough, no island and more dolphins should have been used to deflect ship. Side of bow of ship did hit pillar, then pier stopped ship.

[@dianealbrecht496]

Man. I loved driving across that bridge in the 1980's to & from work. What a view.

[@glenn_r_frank_author]

Would be interesting to put your render camera on the ship's bridge to see how this looked from their POV. -- or on the bridge itself?

[@AmbiAnts589]

Been waiting for this! Didn't expect it so soon though, thanks!

[@salulwang2624]

Excellent job, explained very clearly, I stopped watching press conferences on TV.

[@dannyboyy31]

Very impressive animation Mike. I wish I knew how to do stuff like this!

[@gavinstrachan1373]

Professional done well done interesting how comes out

[@godblessamerica7048]

Awesome work and animation. If you observe the ship's black exhaust, it indicates the wind direction, which may explain the course deviation without power.

[@TheMrMikeo]

Thanks for that Mike

[@justlooking4771]

Incredible 3D animation! Great work.

[@Mike-Bell]

Thanks a lot!

[@Michael.Chapman]

It’d be interesting to see tug boats added for the dock departure segment, when known. Brilliant work, and from the best possible angle.

[@user-Aaron-]

Tug boats are already used for that but don't follow the ship out that far.

[@patrickrush9069]

All that ship traffic in and out of port over the decades and no real protection for the bridge piers . this was bound to happen sooner or later

[@bstaff812]

Great vids man

[@rossthompson7956]

The barge company should be put out of business.

[@Highperson460]

This shows on what happened in way better detail than how most news channels do

[@TomasLjung-jj5dp]

I been in Baltimore in 80 s i remember National aquarium So heavy container ships are problem look in suez nice animation must say Bravissimo ☆☆☆☆☆

[@nian60]

Thank you for doing a video so fast. After this happened I hoped that you would make a video on it. I can't help but wonder where the tugboats were. It's dark so maybe they are there somewhere, but I don't see them. 🤔

[@Mike-Bell]

Your'e welcome 😊 Tugboats only help it away from the dock and nose it into the stream. Just rotten luck it lost power at the worst possible point.

[@nian60]

@@Mike-Bell Aha OK, thanks. It would probably have been a good idea if the tugboats had stayed with the ship until it passed the bridge. Too late now of course. But maybe it's something they should think about in the future.

[@noads1035]

Amazing work, but you missed one important detail. Much of the pylon is now on the bow of the ship. That will prove to be very interesting during the salvage.

[@Mike-Bell]

Good point!

[@Shipspotting_Vietnam]

Great video!!!

[@meinkamph5327]

Apparently the word redundancy wasn't intended yet when the bridge was being constructed.

[@GH-oi2jf]

Trusses are not redundant. Every element of a truss is important. But in any case, the truss was not struck. One of its supports was knocked out from under it. Remove the support from anything and it will fall.

[@meinkamph5327]

@GH-oi2jf Think about more. Inflatable bumper around the pier. Additional, if the bottom of the bay near the pier is low enough for a ship to get the close, That also means the supporting aggregate for the foundation of the pier is being washed away... redundancy: is an action to perverted future unknown issues. (Google it)

[@XIIchiron78]

It's a bridge, what is supposed to be redundant? No structure is going to win a fight with a container ship, regardless of how you build it. That's why major bridges have giant concrete pillars out in the water in front of supports, or large pads to create space around them... Except apparently for this one.

[@markdunigan805]

I agree I'm puzzled why a bridge built 20 years after the Silver Bridge collapsed didn't have a secondary means of support when redundancy became the focus due to the failure of the Silver Bridge for that exact reason.

[@Antony_PC]

Excellent. Thanks Mike.

[@Mike-Bell]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@lvp504]

This vessel had to have been supported by three or four tugboats until entering the open sea. This is not understandable in a ship 300 meters long, 100,000 gross register tons and transporting 10,000 containers. The presence of the tugboats may not have prevented the collision but it would help a lot to prevent it from happening. This is a very serious failure by the Baltimore Port Authority. I guess they have learned their lesson. In Spain we are much more advanced when it comes to the entry and exit of large ships in ports. ►► You can see in this video from the port of Mugardos (Spain - my country) how 4 tugboats from more than 4 miles in the open sea secure with their ropes a 300 meter long gas carrier loaded with 150,000 tons of gas (in cubic meters) crossing an estuary where at its narrowest part the navigation channel measures the same as the navigable width of the Baltimore Bridge -> kzbin.info/www/bejne/pmLRnXSle6eKjdk

[@adonislimes6156]

It's like saying why aren't there tugs under the Golden Gate in SF or Verrazano in NYC. It was in the main shipping channel were tugs are almost never used regardless of port.

[@glenbirnie588]

they have a minimum tug and pilot requirement depending on size of ship. this one needed 2 and a pilot. it international reg requirement..

[@MG-ot2yr]

@@adonislimes6156 Exactly, the marine pilot is in control guiding it out, standard port procedures. Nobody expects a power loss at a really bad time.

[@DPBGMODELRAILROAD]

So you are proposing to tie up 3 or 4 tugs for a hundred mile trip to get this ship to open sea! Every port must be evaluated on its own merits and not waste resources on a once in a million event!

[@lvp504]

@@DPBGMODELRAILROAD At least until the Sparrows Point area. Here in Spain the tugboats receive and support these types of vessels and with those dimensions for 10 miles.

[@nadogrl]

Thank you.😢❤

[@Mike-Bell]

You're welcome 😊

[@will5286]

GREAT ANIMATION

[@brucea9871]

A good animation except around the 1:00 mark when the ship was traversing land. I've heard of amphibious vehicles, but amphibious container ships?

[@RailPreserver2K]

Have you thought of doing an animation of the prior incident from 1980 ? The sunshine skyway

[@hoseignasio1538]

Спасибо Майк! Очень подробно, этого всегда не хватает

[@vladimiraljapuchkin5350]

Спасибо , хорошо сделал анимацию !!!

[@blankearth5840]

One great big full scale physics experiment.

[@OilBaron100]

Yay, another Mike Bell video.

[@user-Aaron-]

Nice vid! Casual Navigation covered this too if anyone's looking for some added context.

[@nian60]

Thanks, I will check it out.

[@keithmurphy6243]

Gee, wow. So glad to have this rendering. Would have never known what truly happened without it 🥱🤷🏼‍♂️👎🏼

[@nuclear314]

Great job on this animation! My only complaint is you have not allowed for the pier column and column cap falling on the bow of the ship.

[@Mike-Bell]

I appreceate your comment and agree with you 🫡. I had to make a trade off between getting this out within a day with less detail or taking a week to with greater accuracy and attention to the finer details. A story goes stale v quick so I went for the posting ASAP route. I really enjoy getting the fine nuances right but this time I was curious to find out what difference a rapid posting makes.

[@DJDrGeL]

Wished you included the 3 construction 🦺 vehicles 🚗 that went down with the bridge. The flashing lights of those vehicles can be seen in the raw footage

[@diyjo2265]

On the Webcam the ship seems to be coming from the other port there to the left traveling parallel to bridge and when power comes on it turns to be in line to go under the bridge that's the way I see it it doesn't line up to me with it coming from the other port dock

[@RoyalCrane]

If you look at the span on the far right, after initial impact the center span drops causing a cantilever effect on the right column lifting the far right side of the right span up until the center span fails, then the cantilever effect causes the far right to drop thus causing the far right span to fail. This is clear in the video but not shown in the animation.

[@ButchBrown7]

Awesome Animation the sad part is NTSB says we have 1,700 more critical bridges like this in America meaning if they hit 2 beam everything collapses

[@marcelorodrigues5483]

Eu recebi o seu vídeo Mike e ficou muito perfeito em 3D. Em relação ao acidente, foi de propósito, uma tragédia catástrofe contra a soberania americana.

[@kennethquinnies6023]

I want to know if they will ever name the ship captain

[@joeabels3931]

missing the two bumpers on each side

[@rickkelsch2040]

nice work

[@Mike-Bell]

Thanks for the visit

[@davidlang4442]

How did that ship gets so sideways without power so quickly! Should have just drifted past the bridge...Almost looks like the rudder was hard over...But this would have been recorded as to its position throughout this whole mess.

[@hoggeric]

For a basic demonstration this is ok. The detail in the compromise does not realistically display exactly how the bridge folded in on itself and was deposited on the ship and in the channel.

[@Mark59396]

I realized where Grandpa Biden spent taxpayers' money! They didn't go to new bridges in Baltimore, not to new railroads!!! They went to war in Ukraine, where they were stolen. Jovelins are sold on the black market!! That's the whole secret! Don't dig a hole for someone else, you'll end up in it yourself!!!

[@r1ch4rdw4gn3r]

Hello hello. Great work Mike. May I offer a small observation for a possible correction. At 3:00 you're showing the collapse of the road deck, that's outside the steel truss (North end of the bridge). The actual collapsed segment was nearly 900 feet long and supported by 2 of those massive conrete pillars that follow the outer truss support pillar. This 900' segment of road was separated by expansion joints on both ends from the central truss section and the remaining standing section of the north roadway. When comparing to aerial footage of the collapsed bridge to your animation, I noticed that you show only one of those additional pillars going down. In reality two more pillars were (curiously) completely obliterated, with only small bits of roadway showing above the water surface. Also the larger truss support pillar was broken even further down than shown here, only the bottom portion remained standing. That's it, just a small detail you might have missed. All the best!

[@r1ch4rdw4gn3r]

This is on wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key_Bridge_(Baltimore)#/media/File:2024_Francis_Scott_Key_Bridge_collapse_labeled_(en).svg

[@Mike-Bell]

Thanks. Great comment. I made this very fast to catch the story before it went stale. Too fast though because I would have preferred to expand on exactly what you described.

[@glennthomas-gs3fb]

Drop the anchor?

[@katiedonald2263]

You hit a steel pilon what did they think would happen the bridge would stay aloft?

[@emilsad56]

Die frage sollte man sich stellen warum hat man keinen Ramschutz gebaut wo doch die Schiffe immer größer werden? Und wieviele Brücken gibt es in den usa wo das nötig wäre

[@phonxil4592]

I thought we're looking from behind the ship for the whole time

[@kevinokief4191]

Who are these people that pull out a 3d animation in a couple days

[@tannguyen95]

How it turn itself right into the piers is make me wonder. If it lost power wouldn't the rudder stay lock and keep moving forward? But i know there are back up power on these big ships.

[@Mike-Bell]

Ship owners are pretty lax on paying maintenance costs.

[@GamingBren]

Condolences to the families impacted

[@vishnureddy34]

once ship looses the power, is it hard to stop the ship ? unbelievable, i wonder how come they can't apply break to the ship

[@Macarena22279]

Stay in grade school

[@njahselector]

in zarate argentina bsasa same thing happened but didnt fall

[@roseambrose7971]

Very sad day here in Baltimore 😢

[@abrahamphilip6439]

What action by the ship made it to veer to the right towards the Bridge Post ? Thats where the error lies, leading to the crash , One does not need to move heaven & earth to find out this,

[@GH-oi2jf]

Setting the propulsion to full astern causes the stern to slew to port and the bow to starboard.

[@leedavid6543]

Why was ship steering into cement pillers that is big question.

[@Macarena22279]

🤦🤦🤦

[@meepsonic]

it took 2 years to build same with Genoa Italy.

[@KevinMcMahon-fh8jw]

Looks like it was deliberate, ship was going fine til someone turned it into the main support the last minute

[@rshettle123]

Ships like that commig in and out of port, it was an accident waiting to happen.

[@MrKoenig1985]

For such wide-spanning bridge passed by large container ships, the structure appears to be flimsy constructed. Looks more like of a temporary structure. Nice work with the animation, as always!

[@petertimowreef9085]

There was absolutely nothing flimsy about this bridge my dude, excellent design that made expert use of the strengths of it's building material. 100 thousand tonnes just have a way of making anything look flimsy when it crashes into it.

[@MrKoenig1985]

@@petertimowreef9085 Compare that set of match sticks with the Manhattan Bridge, or the Washington Bridge, not speak of Golden Gate or Verrazzano-Narrows. In a smaller city, over a river with no to little ship traffic, this bridge design would have been sufficient, but not at heavily frequented water passage to Baltimore Harbor. It hadn't even anti-collision protection installed at the base of its pillars. Also the overarching framework seems to have greatly contributed to its catastrophic collapse.

[@Mike-Bell]

I don’t think there is anything sub par about the structure. Actually quite a beautiful one and the economics would be worth to design for all all eventualities. But barrier casons around the base would have prevented this and seem like the most common sense precautions.

[@JimDog794]

​@@MrKoenig1985You bring up good points. But when this bridge was built in 1977 the Port of Baltimore was much smaller and received vessels less than half the size of this ship. There are concrete dolphins on both sides. The spacing between them is questionable and more could probably have been built. I have personally driven over this bridge many times as well as fished underneath it in a boat. For a bridge close to 50 years old it appeared to be in good condition and was maintained regularly. This was just an unfortunate series of events that caused this disaster. I don't believe any bridge would do very well being struck by that ship.

[@my3dviews]

@@Mike-Bell One problem is that the ships are now much larger than they were in 1977, when the bridge was built. So, had they made barrier caissons at the time, they might not have been made to withstand a ship of that size, and the bridge may still have collapsed.

[@markpalumbo129]

What ever the outcome is the shipping company and or there county should flip the bill not us

[@majasservice7141]

for future seciurity: how close to the bridge, should one tug boat be placed to prevent next collisions? this could be a nice simulation, like thisone!

[@clydeosterhout1221]

A tug boat would have minimal influence on a 100,000 ton ship moving a 8 knots. Even a tug with a line attached at the moment the ship lost power would not have been able to prevent what happened. A tug can assist a ship leaving a dock. Given time, a powerful tug can slowly tow a stopped ship if conditions are favorable, but no tug would have been able to slow or deflect the ship enough to prevent the collision given the time and space involved.

[@SD.95]

Is that ship sunk or still floating?

[@Mike-Bell]

Still floating. Damage was above the waterline but its stuck on the sand. The crew of 22 are stuck there too… from India

[@user-dh6ll7ss3e]

we hope😊

[@AliceCharles-hy3hw]

Thank you Lord Jesus for the gift of life and blessings to me and my family $14,120.47 weekly profit our Lord have lifts up my life!!! 🙏♥️♥️

[@RyanIrman]

I’m 37 and I have been looking for ways to be successful, please how??

[@EdithMichael-hb3kq]

Sure, the investment-adviser that guides me is…

[@EdithMichael-hb3kq]

Mrs Laura Shin

[@RODRIGUEZBELLO-no9dz]

Her services is the best, I got a brand new Lambo last week and paid off my mortgage loan thanks to her wonderful services!

[@MargaretEdward-qw5jf]

Sounds familiar,I have heard her name on several occasions..and both her success stories in the wall Street journal!

[@DougGrinbergs]

2:10 video and impact animation 👍 2:52 helicopter view

[@leeroy5665]

Where's the explosion that happened before the first legs started to collapse?

[@Macarena22279]

Adjust your tin foil hat

[@ecduzitgood]

I still say the ship would have gotten by the bridge without power on the course it was on, it was their actions that cuased the ship to hit the bridge.

[@alanstevens1296]

At 8 knots that even with a power failure that the ship had plenty of headway and could have coasted past the bridge and stayed in the channel.

[@andrep1023]

Belle reconstitution sur ce terrible accident..😢

[@mcgervey]

Good lord it’s like a race to see how many people can slam up videos of this tragic event. As if the live footage leaves anything to the imagination. Smh.

[@Privet-f5r8c4s.]

Красиво

[@jul1440]

Make the water invisible.

[@user-lk7zr5hm9y]

you can see smoke coming out of smokestacks on impact??????🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔Lost power ???

[@hoseignasio1538]

Дым мог быть, труба длинная, мог выходить по инерции... Но если онипрям валил из трубы сильно, то тогда странно! Нужно сравнивать состояние тяги и дыма из трубы, нужны видео где он шел на полном ходу.

[@Mike-Bell]

Yes the lights go off. Come back on again and off again.

[@doggonemess1]

If you watch the video of the event, the power goes off, then comes back on, and then a huge amount of black smoke comes out of the funnel. It's speculated that they were restarting the engines and running them up to full power in an attempt to turn or reverse. With a ship that big, though, doing either takes a long time.

[@Independent7274]

When you start a diesel engine it creates a large plume of black diesel exhaust.

[@umyawin9724]

😊😊😊😊

[@howhow88]

No redundancy construction 😢

[@lawrenceadkins2924]

Not quite... none of the approach sections to the truss portion went down.

[@Mike-Bell]

Two spans on the roadway section (north) collapsed too. Have a closer look at the photos and count the piers.

[@lawrenceadkins2924]

@@Mike-Bell You're right. The initial raw footage of the collapse (showing 4 support pylons) shows the pylon holding up the right side of the truss and an approach section being knocked down. Most of the videos don't show the damage here away from the ship.

[@gavinstrachan1373]

The dolphins look so small to protect bridge when look size ship i suppose was adequate for 1970s .but ships got bigger dolphins haven't thanks information as i say am no expert.

[@christopherfava2529]

Good animation, terrible what happened

[@rhrh2025]

Tug boats being ready for action near the bridge supports is a no brainer. These ships are huge and extremely heavy. But, I didn't see any tug boats ready to respond, on the original video.....

[@StevenRedcay-gw5ci]

? Why did it turn at the pylon just before it hit it . Definitely not an accident and it's plain to see !

[@user-fe1jh1yf4c]

LOL. Cause they dropped the anchor. You don’t know much about physics do you

[@Macarena22279]

Why aren't you arresting someone columbo??

[@printolive955]

Some of the obstacles in the water are not in your cartoon

[@user-tk1ei9yp7w]

Illumanati confirmed

[@BillAng-rh1tr]

world no1 economy ( alleged ) oen ship that is not even a terrorist.. takes down economy in one state

[@Nozzynozzer]

Micah bell

[@Black.Sabbath]

Didn't take you long did it

[@huckleberryfinn338]

Did the black box stop recording the same time the ship turned? If so, we have a massive government cover-up.

[@ImieNazwiskoOK]

It didn't stop recording, but it had pretty much nothing recorded since everything was turned off (no power)

[@Macarena22279]

Tell us more ,gomer

[@anthonycasola8729]

Google earth po map

[@Altair885]

Why the hell do we need people making these animations all the while, we saw with our own eyes what happened!

[@Macarena22279]

Don't watch

[@Altair885]

@@Macarena22279 Don't read my comment!

[@linobalza]

e mo chi paga

[@lolanene7323]

Che tipo di vincolo c'era sugli appoggi...? (carrello, cerniera, incastro...?)

[@Mike-Bell]

I 2 supporti principali centrali su cui si muoveva il perno e i 2 esterni erano scorrevoli/carrello. The 2 centre main supports where pivot and the outer 2 were sliding/ trolley.

[@user-um7zb9gn1s]

Wake up America!

[@mikehunt8563]

I believe we have all heard and seen ENOUGH of the bridge disaster in Baltimore, I KNOW I HAVE ! I never quite understood the HASHING AND REHASHING AND RELIVING EVERYTHING ! ENOUGH ALREADY ! It happened, LETS MOVE ON !

[@frankb518]

SCREW THE ANIMATION!!! WE want to know what HAPPENED TO THE MISSING 2 MINUTES ON THE BLACK BOX!!!

[@ImieNazwiskoOK]

There isn't "2 minutes missing". They were recording, the issue is they were recording pretty much nothing since there was no power (and so many instruments were off).

[@silviehaqiqi-activist9499]

It was only bridge- key was in God's Hands!

[@arvindm1946]

God failed to save the bridge😢

[@Mike-Bell]

And god failed to save the construction workers who were just innocently fixing potholes on a midnight shift.

[@Black.Sabbath]

​@@Mike-Bell So did the police and the Indians on board. And the helicopter that went past.

[@petertimowreef9085]

I watch and love your videos because of the energy and dedication you put into being accurate, but I am afraid this animation isn't accurate at all. I am a fan of your work and I don't mean to be an asshole, just honest feed-back.

[@Mike-Bell]

I appreciate feedback. It will help if you tell me what you find inaccurate.

[@petertimowreef9085]

@@Mike-BellFor example at 2:20 in the footage the roadway on the right side rises substantially before coming down, while in the animation it doesn't.

[@Mike-Bell]

@petertimowreef9085 Ok 100% true 👍🏻😄 My inner perfectionist will always want me to go to the Nth degree bit I gave myself 24 hours to get this out this because the story goes stale so quick. Wanted to catch the wave of interest but sorry to dissapoint you and my perfection streak. Its pretty insane how much that end of the bridge lifted. Then when it slammed down it destroyed the supports. Huge forces.

[@Black.Sabbath]

​@@Mike-Bell 2:18 The bit in the middle didn't snap as you depicted.

[@Mike-Bell]

@@Black.Sabbath im sorry mr headmaster I promise i will do all that stuff next time 😆

[@davidduma7615]

You all know, there is actual video of the event.

[@glenn_r_frank_author]

Yes, that is what he based this animation off of. but a 3d model like this lets you analyze / see it from different angles and views.

[@nian60]

Yes we know. There are several actual videos. But the actual videos were in the dark, and some of them were blurry. Sometimes computer modelling helps with visualising things.

[@VR-ym8ys]

Purpose of this animation? Just to show that you can make an animation that looks like the real thing?

[@TheEDNC]

Watch, MTG will blame orbiting Jewish Laser Beams again.

[@janhappydk]

Guys, there are never any real accidents or coincidenses in this world. Everything is orchestrated with a specific purpose, both good and bad. This is not a physical universe, its a spiritual universe where everything is energy and mind. Everything that happens is to bring you back home to divine love. Your beliefs makes it real, but its all an illusion. Enjoy the show. Remember to buy popcorn and coke. 😃