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We’re looking back at three times vessels crashed into bridges in the recent history of Florida and Georgia — two incidents which led to collapse and causalities.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — After the deadly collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore Tuesday, many are wondering if something like this could happen on the First Coast.
While the bridges involved are all safe and fortified now, there have been incidents in Florida and Georgia in the past.
In November 1972, there was a deadly bridge collapse in Southeast Georgia.
Cars, trucks and people fell into the water when a cargo ship slammed into the old Sidney Lanier bridge.
Ten people died in that collapse.
The Georgia Port Authority says the Sidney Lanier bridge’s piers are now surrounded by rock areas for protection.
There was also an incident in Jacksonville in September 2013. The center of the Mathews Bridge was hit by a large cargo ship that was being towed. No one was injured, but officials said that if the hit was worse, it could have been catastrophic.
At the time, then-Transportation Department spokesman Mike Goldman said their engineers “don’t remember the bridge taking a hit that severe,” the Florida Times-Union reported.
The bridge was closed for over a month.
Tuesday’s collapse has been compared to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapse, also in Florida. This tragedy happened in 1980 in St. Petersburg.
The bridge connects St. Pete to Terra Ceia. A freighter rammed the southbound span of the bridge, which collapsed a 1200-foot length of the bridge. It sent several cars and a Greyhound bus crashing into the water. Thirty-five people were killed.
