A year after the catastrophic collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, Maryland leaders are honoring the six construction workers who were killed that night when the road they were repairing buckled underneath them. While police were able to stop traffic in the moments before a massive cargo ship plowed into the bridge, they didn’t have time to alert the overnight roadwork crew. “Everyone working on the scene shared that same priority — those men we lost in the water,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said during an anniversary ceremony Wednesday morning, recalling the horrific minutes and hours after the collapse. “While this day is a day of mourning, it is not a day of grief alone,” Scott said. “It is a day to commemorate the strength, resilience and that Baltimore grit that we showed the world in that moment.” After the collapse, the Port of Baltimore was closed for months as debris blocked its main shipping channel. It made an impressive rebound during the second half of 2024, but now the Trump administration’s tariffs could threaten its ongoing recovery. Just last week, federal investigators criticized the Maryland Transportation Authority for failing to determine and address the bridge’s vulnerability to ship strikes — despite major changes in maritime shipping since it opened to traffic in 1977. They called upon other bridge owners to learn from the example. In the meantime, Maryland drivers are without the Key Bridge, which connected various port-oriented industrial communities north and south of Baltimore, allowing people to easily bypass downtown. Traffic has since increased significantly on the main alternate routes. Named after the man who penned the national anthem during the War of 1812, the Key Bridge was a beloved feature of Baltimore’s skyline and a symbol of its proud working-class history. Here’s what to know about the bridge’s collapse — and its replacement. When disaster struck It was just after 2 a.m. on March 26, 2024, when Gov. Wes Moore got a call from his chief of staff, Fagan Harris. His words weren’t easy to grasp: “Governor, I’m sorry to tell you, but the Key Bridge is gone,” Moore recounted to The Associated Press. “What do you mean ‘gone?’” the governor remembered asking. Moore soon learned that a ship had lost power and crashed into one of the bridge’s supporting columns, killing the six workers — whose assignment that night was filling potholes on the bridge. Once he grasped the scale of the tragedy, Moore said, the morning became a stream of phone calls. “It was just chaos going on at that moment, because I knew that Marylanders were … hours away from waking up to realize that one of the greatest tragedies in our state’s history had just occurred,” Moore said. Collective shock and progress In the weeks and months that followed, people gathered by the water’s edge and watched as crews worked diligently to clear the wreckage. The main shipping channel to the Port of Baltimore reopened in 11 weeks. A year later, Moore delivered remarks Wednesday morning near where the tragedy unfolded. “And even though the scene looks different, our memories are engraved,” he said. “We remember the cold morning in March that changed our state forever, and we remember the tears we shed and the uncertainty that we all felt.” The initial shock was followed by a collective display of […]