BALTIMORE — They had to come see it.
They’d gotten text messages in the middle of the night or woke this morning to the frightening news that the Francis Scott Key Bridge had been struck by an immense cargo ship and collapsed.
So, these Baltimore residents leashed their dogs and gathered up friends and family to head to the Fort McHenry seawall, with its heart-rending view of the twisted remains of what for decades had been a comforting landmark, a symbol of home.
There, they stared across Baltimore harbor as Coast Guard ships searched for survivors. Quietly, they grieved for the dead and hoped that the living might still be plucked from the cold waters.
They still don’t know who may have died when parts of the bridge fell into the Patapsco River. They do know the bridge.
They’d sailed their boats underneath it, driven over it or simply stood on the fort’s mile-long walking path, with the 19th-century cannons perched behind them, and taken photos of the soaring, 185-foot-high structure for no other reason than they thought it beautiful. Today it’s gone, and its neighbors are grieving.
“It’s devastating,” said Kathy Carducci, 59, who was out walking with her 11-year-old beagle. “I have so many pictures of the bridge. Many times, we walk around and I’ll just take a picture of the bridge. It’s iconic Baltimore.”
Sarah Vitale, 40, sat on a bench and gazed into the distance. She comes to the fort to walk from time to time but this morning she was there to “reflect,” she said. At least six people were believed to be missing as of late morning.
“I saw the footage of it; it’s something out a horror movie,” she said. “I expected to feel this way when I came down here. I decided I wanted to do that not only to see what the scene looked like, but to pray for these people.”
This being a world where terrorism is all too common, some of those who’d come to see the wreckage had wondered if the bridge might have been deliberately attacked. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in a morning press briefing that the ship operators had told authorities of a “power issue” and had issued a mayday call moments before colliding with a pillar.
“There are lots of conclusions we can all jump to,” said Richard Mead, 48, a Baltimore resident who was walking his dog, a boxer mix. “We have to worry about national security and infrastructure, but maybe today is a reminder that sometimes unfortunate things happen and there’s nothing we can do about it.”