Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapses

[Ianab]

Actually had that happen nearby a few years back. Crew on a local mail / courier flight stuffed up and got themselves into a flat spin at ~18,000 ft. I only heard it as the engines on the detached wings were still running as it spiraled in. Freaky sound, that suddenly stopped, then a couple of minutes later the sirens went off. It broke up in mid air over Sharon's house, and she went outside to see what the heck was happening. It landed a few miles South of her, as flaming debris. They were finding mail for miles. 

[caveman]

The other morning while driving to work, I heard talk of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and other bridges and how they deal with ship collisions (dolphins built in front of bridges).  They mentioned the increased size of today's cargo ships compared to those in the 1950's.  They threw out a number of containers a modern ship could carry, and it went in one ear and out the other, so I decided to look it up. 

What I learned absolutely blew my mind-24,000 20' standard containers on one ship or 12,000 40' containers.  The diversity of goods shipped in these boxes and the multitudes of final destinations of the goods is astounding.  The logistics of ensuring not only the containers end up in the right spot, but the contents in them get delivered to the right place is beyond my comprehension.  Think of all of the random stuff that we buy off of Amazon or at the local Wal-Mart.

It is no wonder there are an abundance of containers available as there are a lot more coming into our ports than are going out.  The import taxes may influence this to some extent.

Anyway, these are some of the random things that run through my head.

[tule peak timber]

I love the Youtube videos of container ship machinery spaces. Man I miss the ocean.