First piece of Baltimore bridge debris removed from river

Crews removed the first piece of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge from the Patapsco River on Saturday in an effort to reopen the Port of Baltimore.

The northern part of the bridge’s steel frame was sawn off to allow it to be carried off in a barge. From there, the section will be transported to the site of the former Bethlehem Steel Mill, which will soon be a distribution center for companies such Amazon. Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) gave an update during a press conference without offering a specific timeline.

“This will eventually allow us to open up a temporarily restricted channel that will help us to get more vessels in the water around the site of the collapse,” Moore said. “It’s not going to take days, but once we complete this phase of the work, we can move more tugs and more barges and more boats into the area to accelerate our recovery.”