The Francis Scott Key Bridge was a steel arch continuous through truss bridge spanning the lower Patapsco River and outer Baltimore Harbor / Port carrying Maryland Route 695 (the Baltimore Beltway) between Hawkins Point, a neighborhood of Baltimore, and Dundalk in Maryland, United States. The main spans of the bridge were destroyed on March 26, 2024, when a container ship, the MV Dali, crashed into one of its support pillars. The crossing between Baltimore City and Baltimore County also passed through a small portion of Anne Arundel County. It was first known as the Outer Harbor Crossing until 1976 when it was renamed while still under construction. It has also been known as the Key Bridge or Beltway Bridge. The main span of 1,200 feet (366 m) was the third longest span of any continuous truss in the world, and the total length was 8,636 feet (2,632 m) long. It was the second-longest bridge in the Baltimore metropolitan area, after the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

The bridge was opened on March 23, 1977, and named for amateur poet Francis Scott Key (1779–1843), the author of the lyrics to the American national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”. The Key Bridge was a toll facility operated by the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA). The bridge was the outermost of three toll crossings of Baltimore’s Harbor, two tunnels, and one bridge.

The bridge carried an estimated 11.5 million vehicles annually. It was a designated hazardous materials truck route, as HAZMATs were prohibited in the Baltimore Harbor and Fort McHenry tunnels. Upon completion, the bridge structure and its approaches became the final links in Interstate 695, the “Baltimore Beltway”, completing a two-decade-long project. Despite being signed as part of I-695, the bridge was officially considered part of the state highway system and designated Maryland Route 695.

History

In the 1960s, the Maryland State Roads Commission concluded a need for a second harbor crossing after the earlier Baltimore Harbor Thruway and Tunnel opened in 1957. They began planning another single-tube tunnel under the Patapsco River, further to the southeast, downstream from the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel. The proposed site was between Hawkins Point and Sollers Point in the outer harbor. Plans also were underway for a drawbridge to the south over Curtis Creek, replacing an earlier 1931 drawbridge carrying Pennington Avenue over the creek, to connect Hawkins Point to Sollers Point.

At the same time, a bridge was planned for the segment of an additional through highway for the East Coast with I-95 that would run through the city near Fort McHenry and paralleling the Harbor Tunnel Thruway. This was replaced by what is now known as the Fort McHenry Tunnel, a four-tube facility running under and curving around historic Fort McHenry, that opened in 1985.

The project was financed by a $220 million bond issue alongside the twinning of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in October 1968. Contractors took bearings of the outer harbor bottom and ship channel in the spring of 1969. Bids for constructing the proposed Outer Harbor Tunnel were opened in July 1970, but price proposals were substantially higher than the engineering estimates. Officials drafted alternative plans, including a four-lane bridge, which the General Assembly approved in April 1971.

At an estimated cost of $110 million, the bridge would have more traffic lanes and lower operating and maintenance costs than a tunnel. A bridge would provide a route across the Baltimore Harbor for vehicles transporting hazardous materials, which are prohibited from both the Baltimore Harbor and Fort McHenry tunnels. The United States Coast Guard issued its bridge permit in June 1972, replacing an earlier approval of the tunnel from the Army Corps of Engineers. Construction of the Outer Harbor Bridge began in 1972, several years behind schedule and $33 million over budget.

The bridge, which was still being built, was given the name in 1976 to honor Francis Scott Key, the author of “The Defense of Fort M’Henry,” the poem upon which “The Star-Spangled Banner” is based. Key was inspired to write the poem after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in September 1814. Key had been aboard an American truce ship with the British Royal Navy fleet in Baltimore Harbor near Sollers Point; the approximate location is within 100 yards (91 m) of the bridge and marked by a buoy in the colors of the U.S. flag. Another similarly named Francis Scott Key Bridge crosses the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.

The Key Bridge opened to traffic on March 23, 1977. Including its connecting approaches, the bridge project was 10.9 miles (17.54 km) in length. Other structures along the thruway included a 0.64-mile (1.03 km) dual-span drawbridge over Curtis Creek and two 0.74-mile (1.19 km) parallel bridge structures that carry traffic over Bear Creek.

A few months after the 1980 Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapse, a cargo ship collided with the Key Bridge, but the bridge was relatively undamaged.

The bridge opened with four lanes, but its approaches were two lanes to reduce costs. The south approach was widened in 1983. A project for the north approach was completed in 1999 after several years of delays. The delay was attributed in part to the widening’s impacts on a Bethlehem Steel plant in Sparrows Point.

Collapse

On March 26, 2024, at 01:27 EDT (05:27 UTC), the main spans of the bridge collapsed after the Singapore-registered container ship MV Dali lost power and collided with one of the support pillars. The collapse was declared a “mass casualty incident”. Sonar exploration detected several vehicles underwater; two people were pulled out of the river alive, while at least six are presumed dead. The incident could have been much worse, according to Maryland Governor Wes Moore: the actions of both the ship’s crew, who sent a mayday distress call, and workers on the bridge itself, who kept other vehicles off the bridge in the moments before the collapse, saved many lives.

Reconstruction

In his remarks addressing the incident, President Joe Biden stated his intent “that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing [the Francis Scott Key Bridge]”. He also affirmed all resources were being made available to assist in the response to the incident. He said that he had plans to visit Baltimore in the days after the incident.

Tolls

As of July 1, 2013, the toll rate for cars was $4.00. The bridge was part of the E-ZPass system and its toll plaza included two dedicated E-ZPass lanes in each direction. In April 2019, MDTA announced that the bridge would become a cashless toll facility by October 2019. With this system, customers without E-ZPass would pay using video tolling. Cashless tolling began on the bridge on October 30, 2019.

 

 

 

Francis Scott Key Bridge
Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, MD
Coordinates	39°13′1″N 76°31′42″W
Carries	4 lanes of   I-695 Toll
Crosses	Patapsco River
Locale	Baltimore metropolitan area, Maryland, U.S.
Maintained by	Maryland Transportation Authority
ID number	300000BCZ472010
Website	mdta.maryland.gov/Toll_Facilities/FSK.html
Characteristics
Design	Steel arch-shaped continuous through truss bridge
Material	Steel
Total length	8,636 feet (2,632.3 m; 1.6 mi)
Longest span	1,200 feet (366 m)
Clearance below	185 feet (56 m)
History
Construction start	1972; 52 years ago
Opened	March 23, 1977; 47 years ago
Collapsed	March 26, 2024; 1 day ago
Statistics
Toll	Yes
Location

References