Baltimore engineers begin clearing bridge wreckage to reopen channel

• Engineers in Maryland have begun lifting a piece of the Francis Scott Key Bridge out of the waterway in Baltimore.
• It is the first step in a long process to reopen the Port of Baltimore, the 11th-largest port in the U.S.
• Early Tuesday morning, the Key Bridge collapsed due to a container ship collision, which killed several construction workers.

Engineers in Maryland on Saturday began lifting a piece of Francis Scott Key Bridge out of the waterway in Baltimore, the first step in a long process to reopen the city's shipping port.

"I cannot stress enough how important today and the first movement of this bridge and the wreckage is," said Gov. Wes Moore at a Saturday press conference. "The complexity of this cannot be overstated."

On early Tuesday morning, the Key Bridge collapsed due to a container ship colliding into one of its pillars, leaving several people missing, six of whom the U.S. Coast Guard has presumed are dead.

"We are never going to lose sight of the human aspect of this crisis," Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said Saturday.

In the days since the collapse, the Port of Baltimore, the 11th-largest port in the U.S., has been non-operational until further notice, forcing shipping companies to divert to other ports.

Government officials on the federal, state and municipal levels have mobilized their teams to start trying to bring the port back online. President Joe Biden is set to visit the city next week and has committed to the federal government paying for the full cost of the recovery and reconstruction of the bridge.

To execute the first lift of the bridge on Saturday, engineers cut a piece of the bridge to make it manageable for their crane. Once the piece is cut, engineers will attach straps to it, rig it and