Francis Scott Key Bridge (Baltimore)

Not to be confused with Key Bridge (Washington, D.C.).

Francis Scott Key Bridge
View from Fort Armistead Park, 2015
Coordinates	39°13′1″N 76°31′42″W
Carried	4 lanes of I-695 Toll
Crossed	Patapsco River
Locale	Baltimore metropolitan area, Maryland
Maintained by	Maryland Transportation Authority
ID number	300000BCZ472010
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 above	185 feet (56 m)
History
Construction start	1972 (1972)
Opened	March 23, 1977 (1977-03-23)
Collapsed	March 26, 2024 (2024-Mar-26)
Statistics
Toll	Yes (prior to collapse)
Location

The Francis Scott Key Bridge is a temporarily damaged steel arch continuous through truss bridge spanning the lower Patapsco River and outer Baltimore Harbor / Port carrying Maryland Route 695 between Baltimore and Dundalk, Maryland, United States. The crossing between Baltimore City and Baltimore County also passed through a small portion of Anne Arundel County. It was originally known as the Outer Harbor Crossing until it was renamed in 1976, while still under construction, and was also known as simply 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. It was the second-longest bridge in the Baltimore metropolitan area, after the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

The bridge was opened on March 23, 1977, named for amateur poet Francis Scott Key (1779–1843), the author of the American national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner". The bridge was the outermost of three toll crossings of Baltimore's Harbor, two tunnels and one bridge. 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 the I-695 signage, the bridge was officially considered part of the state highway system and designated Maryland Route 695.

The bridge was 8,636 feet (2,632 m) long and carried an estimated 11.5 million vehicles annually. It was a designated hazardous materials truck route. HAZMATs are prohibited in the Baltimore Harbor and Fort McHenry tunnels.

The Key Bridge was a toll facility operated by the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA). As of March 26th 2024, the toll rate for a car is $6.00. The bridge was part of the E-ZPass system and included two dedicated E-ZPass lanes in its toll plaza in both the northbound and southbound directions. 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.

The main spans of the bridge were destroyed on March 26, 2024, when the container ship MV Dali crashed into one of its support pillars.

History

In the 1960s, the old 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.

Sign for the Key Bridge used on approach roads

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, still under construction, was named in 1976 for Francis Scott Key, who wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner" 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.

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.

• 
  Key Bridge with Baltimore in the background, viewed from Cox Creek Industrial Park, in northeast Anne Arundel County, November 2011 to the south
• 
  Key Bridge looking to the northeast with Sparrows Point and the Bethlehem Steel Corporation steel mill and shipyards of southeast Baltimore County in the distance, February 2018
• Driving westbound across the bridge, November 2023

Collapse

Main article: Francis Scott Key Bridge 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 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 still missing. The tragedy could have been immensely worse - according to Maryland Governor Wes Moore, the actions of both the ships' 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

President Joe Biden said he intends to ask Congress to fund the bridge's reconstruction and said all resources are being made available to assist in the response to the incident. He said that he plans to visit Baltimore in the coming days after the incident.

External links

• Maryland Transportation Authority, Francis Scott Key Bridge website
• Steve Anderson's DCroads.net: Francis Scott Key Bridge (I-695)