Bridge clear up crucial to national economy

Crews of engineers have begun the dangerous and intricate job of removing the mangled wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge from the Patapsco River outside Baltimore, as top federal government and Maryland state officials stressed that the health of the US national economy depended on it.

- Ed Pilkington

Officials took to the political talkshows last Sunday to praise the emergency teams that have now amassed in the Patapsco and have started the delicate process of cutting and lifting steel debris from the north side of the destroyed bridge. Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, said the operation was extremely complex.

"We have a ship that has nearly the size of the Eiffel Tower that is now stuck within the channel that has the Key Bridge sitting on top of it," he told CNN.

He added that the bridge collapse on 26 March, when the 300-metre cargo ship the Dali lost power and crashed into the structure, was not a local but a national economic catastrophe.