What the Bridge Meant to Baltimore

For some, the Francis Scott Key Bridge symbolized the working-class communities around it — for others, the city itself. Blue-collar workers crossed it. Families went crabbing around it. Teenagers celebrated new driver’s licenses by traversing it. And couples were known to get engaged near it. Completed in 1977, the Francis Scott Key Bridge was a practical, final link to the beltway of roads that circled Baltimore Harbor, a much-needed solution to reduce Harbor Tunnel congestion. But for so many, it was more than that. For some, it symbolized the working-class...