Francis Scott Key Bridge (Baltimore)

Francis Scott Key Bridge
The Francis Scott Key Bridge, viewed from Fort Armistead Park at Hawkins Point on the south shore of the outer Patapsco River - southeastern corner of Baltimore City
Coordinates
Carries	4 lanes of I-695
Crosses	Patapsco River
Locale	Baltimore, Maryland
Maintained by	Maryland Transportation Authority
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
History
Construction begin	1972
Opened	March 23, 1977 (1977-03-23)
Collapsed	March 26, 2024 (2024-03-26)
Statistics
Toll	Passenger cars: $3 Maryland E-ZPass $4 non-Maryland E-ZPass $6 Video toll

The Francis Scott Key Bridge, known originally as the Outer Harbor Crossing until it was renamed in 1977, or simply the Key Bridge or Beltway Bridge, was a steel arch-shaped continuous through truss bridge spanning the lower Patapsco River and outer Baltimore Harbor / Port carrying Maryland Route 695 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The main span of 1,200 feet (366 m) was the third longest span of any continuous truss in the world. It was the longest bridge in the Baltimore metropolitan area. On March 26, 2024 at 01:27 a.m. EDT (UTC–4), the bridge collapsed after the Singapore-flagged container ship Dali collided with one of its support pillars.

The bridge was opened on March 23, 1977, and was 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 decades 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, as 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). The toll rate for cars as of July 1, 2013 was $4.00. 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.

History

In the 1960s, the old Maryland State Roads Commission concluded there was 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 major expensive project, a four-tube facility running under and curving around historic Fort McHenry, that opened in 1985.

File:2016-08-15 11 38 42 Sign for the Francis Scott Key Bridge (Interstate 695) along northbound Maryland State Route 173 (Fort Smallwood Road) just north of Cabot Drive in Pasadena, Anne Arundel County, Maryland.jpg

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 construction of 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 was approved by the General Assembly in April 1971.

The bridge, at an estimated cost of $110 million, 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 overbudget.

The bridge 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 100 yards (91 m) of the bridge and marked by a buoy in the colors of the U.S. flag. Another 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.

• KeyBridge.Baltimore.MD.jpg

  Key Bridge with Baltimore in background, viewed from Cox Creek Industrial Park, in northeast Anne Arundel County, November 2011 to the south

• Francis Scott Key Bridge Eastern View.jpg

  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

• Crossing the Key Bridge (Baltimore).webm

  Driving eastbound across the bridge, November 2023

Collapse

Main article: Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse

On March 26, 2024, at around 01:27 EDT (05:27 UTC), the entirety of the through truss bridge collapsed after the Singaporean container ship Dali collided with one of the support pillars. The collapse was called a mass casualty incident. An unknown number of vehicles and construction workers were on the bridge at the time of the collision and subsequent collapse.

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

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