First section of mangled steel removed from collapsed Baltimore Key Bridge

Engineers began carefully removing the first twisted hunk of steel from the collapsed part of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge late Saturday, with the help of several massive cranes.

The nearly 50-year-old bridge crashed into the Patapsco River in Maryland on Tuesday, after a massive cargo ship smashed into one of its main supports, killing six construction workers and blocking shipping traffic into the Port of Baltimore.

Sparks could be seen flying from the mangled steel on Saturday as workers tried to cut part of the bridge off. Straps will be attached to the piece before it’s loaded onto a barge and taken away, Coast Guard officials said.

It’s not clear how long it will take to completely remove the structure from the water and reopen the economically vital shipping lanes.

Crews began removing a section of the Baltimore Key Bridge on Saturday. Getty Images

It’s not clear how long it will take to completely remove the structure. Getty Images

“I cannot stress enough how important today and the first movement of this bridge and of the wreckage is. This is going to be a remarkably complicated process,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Saturday.

The team deployed to remove the crumbled bridge is immense: Seven floating cranes — including a massive one capable of lifting 1,000 tons — 10 tugboats, nine barges, eight salvage vessels and five Coast Guard boats are on site in the water southeast of Baltimore.

The crew first intends to get a small auxiliary ship channel open so tugboats and barges can move freely.

They also want to stabilize the site so divers can continue searching for the four missing workers who are presumed dead, officials said.

Massive cranes and barges have been deployed to the scene to begin removing parts of the bridge. AP

Crews first hope to stabilize the site so divers can continue looking for the bodies of two missing construction workers. Getty Images

The construction workers had been filling potholes on the bridge when the Singapore-based Dali tanker lost power and plowed into one of its supports around 1:30 a.m Tuesday morning.

Two workers were rescued from the water in the hours following the bridge collapse. Two more bodies were recovered from a pickup truck that fell and was submerged in the river.

The crew of the cargo ship Dali, which is managed by Synergy Marine Group, remains on board with the debris from the bridge around it. None of them were injured in the crash and they are being interviewed by authorities.

They are keeping the ship running so it can get out of the channel as more debris is removed.

With Post Wires