dustie Loc: Nose to the grindstone

No, I'm not Jerry, but here is possible scenario.

Without propulsion and steering, a maneuver the crew is probably trained to use is drop anchors in an attempt to slow the vessel. That does not provide controllable steering, and it is a very inefficient braking system, but it's pretty much the only onboard option remaining.
Downside of that is, the anchors are at the bow, not the stern. So if they drag hard enough or catch on the bottom, the momentum will cause the stern to swing out in some direction to pass the bow which is being restrained, at some degree of inefficiency, by an anchor or anchors, effectively altering the direction of the vessel's course fairly quickly. Kinda like a staked-out running animal hitting the end of its chain.........only on a massively larger scale of energy at work.

The rate of that bridge dropping is more a result of support of its continuous truss being removed, and the expected progressive failure, as it is not capable of self-sustaining support without its engineered ground support.
If it was all ship speed and momentum from beginning to end of collapse, it would be expected that highway bridge would have been forced, dragged, carried, propelled, something, many many yards downstream by high speed impact, rather than doing the nearly vertical drop as the ship ended its low speed movement.

AirWalter Loc: Tipp City, Ohio

I heard some other news programs and they were talking about, some of people who were starting investigation already wondered why the anchors were never dropped

dustie Loc: Nose to the grindstone

Hmmmmm.......interesting.

There are photos on some sites showing anchor chains leading into the water, no anchors visible in raised position.
One photo has a perspective angle which appears to show the chain of the portside anchor swept back a bit toward the stern, as though that anchor was dragging bottom when the ship stopped.

srt101fan

Some of the pictures I've seen show the anchor chain hanging out of the hawsepipe on one side of the ship.

GBJim

The bridge collapse (Francis Scott Key Bridge) is a bridge across the Patapsco River in Baltimore. It is part of the I-695 "beltway" around the city. You could have used it previously, but you're more likely to be traveling in I-95 and use one of the two tunnels under the outer harbor. I rarely used the bridge. More often, the tunnel was my choice.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Investigation, been there, done that long ago in the Army.

The cruise ships have gotten ridiculous, in a cross wind they have to be in danger of rolling over.

The only long "cruise" I ever went on was aboard this: USS General W. H. Gordon 11,450 tons (lt) 20,175 tons fully laden 622 feet 7 inches (189.76 m)
Oakland to San Diego to pick up some marines, to Okinawa to pick up fresh food (we did get ashore for about 6 hours), to Vietnam where we dropped the Marines in one port, all the rest of the Army units in another and then finally Qui Nhon where my unit got off after circling for 3 days in a storm until we could go ashore via Higgins* boat because the water was too rough to use the piers. Those three days were the only time I got seasick out of the 28 days our "cruise" lasted.

I understand they took a heavy cruiser hull and put a fast attack transport upper works on it. They only built two before WW2 ended, and they canceled the others. And it was fast, we caught up to and passed a lot of ships, including one small aircraft carrier. Well, small for an aircraft carrier. The US Navy doesn't have any of those anymore. They have some combo carrier/landing ships that have jump jets and/or helicopters like the USS America and that ship is almost 850'.

* I can actually say I landed on a beach by going over the side and then running down the bow ramp carrying my rifle and full gear. It was the city recreational beach and the beach goers sort of goggled at us as we stormed their beach then boarded Army buses. The only dangerous resistence we faced was the venders and we had been warned not to buy anything to eat or drink from them - unless of course we just wanted to be very sick for a day or two.

kavitykid Loc: Maryland

Seven workers filling pot holes on the bridge went into the water and have not been found. The bridge was closed just before impact when an SOS was sent from the ship otherwise it would have been much worse.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

It looked like at the time of the collision traffic had just cleared the bridge but the work crews vehicles were on the bridge.

ELNikkor

On Lester Holt, they said the bridge had been closed, so no traffic went into the water. Just curious if there was a line of irate drivers wanting the bridge to open, then, after ker-splash!, very glad that it hadn't, stopped being irate, and became thankful that some people were doing their jobs.

Tote1940 Loc: Dallas

In many bridges have seem an structure to keep boats away from pillars.
Just huge wooden piles driven in a circle or diamond shape . You can see some like that on high tension towers near bridge.
They narrow channel , may be they are to direct current more than protect posts.
Structure will have to be analyzed, one post hit but whole bridge dissassembled in seconds

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

That’s the nature of a suspension bridge. One part goes the entire bridge goes. As for protecting the towers the rebuilt Sunshine Skyway bridge after its collapse has concrete “islands” that won’t let a boat near, but I doubt they have that kind of space in Baltimore Harbor.

Amtrain

They did not drop either of the two anchors ...a big No-No.

xt2 Loc: British Columbia, Canada

So sorry for your travel disruption problems Indi

Wallen Loc: Middle Earth

I was watching the security video published last night. The ship did lost light and smoke for about a second just before it hit the bridge.
But was heading for the pillar the whole time, maybe a full 10 minutes before impact, and was moving very fast for such a small navigation space at night.
That bridge and pillars should be clearly marked on their navigation tools and the area would be time to carefully pilot. If my bells are correct, it was intentional.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Apparently they did