Key Bridge Collapse

Earlier this week, the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, locally known as the Key Bridge, collapsed in the middle of the night.  A large container ship attempting to pass beneath the bridge appeared to lose power and propulsion around 1:30am on March 26th.  The crew lost control of the ship, and it struck one of the bridge’s support legs.  In mere moments, the iconic 1.6-mile bridge was reduced to a huge pile of twisted metal and broken concrete in the Patapsco River.

I happened to wake up at 4am and decided to check the news on my phone.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  The Key Bridge really collapsed?  Is this true?  I checked my Waze app, and reports confirmed what I saw.  I turned on live news on the radio and TV and listened throughout the day.  The whole nation was in shock.

Eight construction workers were working on the bridge at the time of its collapse.  Two of them were rescued, but six others were unable to be located following the collapse.  After a rescue mission failed to find them, the U.S. Coast Guard ended its search, and they have sadly been presumed dead.  Luckily, a distress call was made from the ship prior to its crash, and it enabled officers to stop traffic across the bridge which certainly saved lives.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

The Key Bridge has been an important piece of regional infrastructure since 1977, linking the I-695 Beltway into a loop over the Baltimore Harbor.  It was one of three major Patapsco River crossings along with the Baltimore and Fort McHenry Tunnels.  It has provided a route for trucks that were too large to fit through the tunnels and for those that were carrying hazardous materials.

Photo by Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Marine passage has stalled for the time being, and this disruption will likely affect the prices of many goods.  The bridge’s remains will be extremely difficult to remove from the water, and the clean-up will no doubt be lengthy and costly.  Water and highway traffic will be forced to take alternate routes for quite a while.  I thought of doing some on-the-ground reporting from the scene this weekend, but I’ve used my better judgment to stay away while the experts get to work.  Preliminary plans for reconstruction and funding are already underway.  It is expected to take several years and to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, which means the project could easily exceed $1 billion.  Only time will tell.

Cicada Invasion!

This spring, cicadas invaded a large part of the eastern United States.  The brood of insects that appeared in Maryland this year were 17-year periodical cicadas.  Known as Brood X, or the great eastern brood, they emerged from the underground in May and remained in the area until the middle of June.

Cicada on my shirt

The insects seemed to appear overnight and were suddenly everywhere.  Cicadas were flying around, standing on cars, and lying on sidewalks.  They have a deserved reputation for being clumsy fliers.  On my daily walks, I would usually have a couple cicadas swirling through the air and landing on my clothing.  When I tried to shake them off, they would sometimes respond with a loud chirping noise.

Discarded exoskeleton shell

The cicadas have red-orange eyes and long, visible wings.  When they emerge from the ground, the insects molt into their adult form and discard their exoskeletons (shells).  I saw them littered everywhere across the ground.  After this phase, they begin to attract mates and lay eggs.

Cicadas and their shells on the sidewalk

Cicadas landing on your arms, legs, and clothing is a bit unsettling at first, until you realize that they are relatively harmless.  Luckily, they are not known to bite or sting.  They could be seen flying around trees, but they didn’t seem to do much damage to the leaves.

Cicada on my shirt

The biggest nuisance they caused for me was their loud and sometimes deafening noise.  I might be somewhat exaggerating, but they can get very loud!  According to the National Institutes of Health, their mating calls and responses can exceed 90 decibels, which is equivalent to lawnmowers and motorcycles.

Cicada in motion

I could hear their sounds echoing throughout the neighborhood all day long.  Particularly around trees, their hissing and buzzing got so loud that it actually hurt my ears.  At this time of year, I typically sleep with my windows open, and I could hear the cicada noise all night long.

Cicada on sidewalk

By the middle of June, the insects started to disappear.  I didn’t see them around anymore, and their seemingly ever-present background noise finally went away.  They are known to stick around for only about six weeks.

Cicadas and their shells on the sidewalk

Other than some dead cicadas and discarded shells, maybe some leaf damage, they didn’t leave much of a visible trace that they were even here.  The tiny eggs laid by them have hatched, and the nymphs that emerged have burrowed back underground.

Cicada on a truck tire

The periodical cicadas are fascinating creatures.  Their emergence every 17 years is an interesting natural phenomenon.  They weren’t too much of a disturbance to people, pets, plants, or wildlife.   By my calculation, they will be returning here in 2038.  I’ll look forward to that.