Again, a moment to pause & appreciate the cool professionalism of those in & around the Key Bridge at 1:24 am Tuesday.
Ship’s pilot radios in that ship has lost steerage & will hit bridge.
Someone (maritime control?) transmits urgent alert to Maryland/Balt police dispatch…
—>
2/ Police dispatched with just a few crisp phrases—ship has lost steering, close the bridge to traffic—and race to do just that.
No time for confusion. No time for … ‘What do you mean, close the bridge? Who says?’
4 minutes, alert to collapse.
Bridge successfully closed…
—>
3/ That’s amazing. Again, a system worked—a government system.
All those people just ordinary frontline workers in anonymous, sometimes invisible jobs.
Maritime radio operators. Police/fire dispatchers. Bridge police & state police.
All working 11p to 7a o’night shift.
—>
4/ Cool, direct, urgent, successful.
Maybe not a college degree or a 6-figure salary among them—and they used their training & experience at the most critical, high-pressure moment to save lives.
All day, every day—that happens & we don’t see it.
That’s your ‘deep state.’
—>
5/ Just in Port of Baltimore, 45 cargo container ships come & go every 24 hours.
16,000 ships a year.
They require all this guidance all the time (and US has 8 LARGER ports).
Each ship with 5,000 containers loaded & unloaded.
Not to mention… —>
6/ The 8 construction workers on the bridge—patching potholes in the middle of the night, so the road stays maintained, at a time that reduces inconvenience to us (and yes, is easier for them too because of low traffic).
Every night… —>
7/ Every night, 5 or 6 days a wk, men & women just like them do that dangerous work on interstates & bridges in all 50 states.
Here’s the moment:
An officer who closed one of the approaches says on radio…‘Can we notify the construction workers? Can we call the supervisor?’
—>
8/ The officer was ready to drive out & warn the workers when someone on the radio — seconds later — said, The bridge is down. The whole bridge.
That unnamed officer had been immediately thinking about how to save those guys out on the bridge—workers just like him.
Thanks. —>
9/ Thanks to all these folks who make the world run, and run safely 99% of the time, and work with skill, grace, clear-headedness in invisible but essential jobs.
Even as disaster unfolded Tuesday after midnight, they were at work.
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.