New Baltimore bridge collapse images emerge of wreckage at bottom of river

New images show the remains of the Baltimore Francis Scott Key Bridge at the bottom of the Patapsco River.

The photos were released by the US Navy on Tuesday morning, which used sonar technology to obtain the images. Specifically, the Maryland State Police said that US Army personnel utilized a tool called CODA Octopus, a primary sonar tool used by divers working at the site of the incident.

The images show that visibility below the surface is clouded by one to two feet due to mud and loose matter at the bottom of the river. The Port of Baltimore is approximately 50 feet deep.

“Divers are working in virtual darkness because when lit their view is similar to driving through a heavy snowfall at night with high-beam headlights on”, the US Army said on X. Complicating matters, divers must be guided using detailed verbal directions from operators on nearby vessels viewing CODA imagery in real time.

Last week, officials suspended recovery efforts for the bodies of four out of the six deceased men due to the dangerous conditions facing divers in the water. Still, at a news conference on Monday, Maryland Governor Wes Moore reiterated his determination to reunite the men with their families.

Authorities are optimistic that they’ll be able to do so once parts of the bridge are removed from the site, even though the issue is becoming increasingly more complicated than anticipated.

“These girders are essentially tangled together intertwined, making it very difficult to figure out where you need to eventually cut so that we can make that into more manageable sizes to lift them from the waterway”, Admiral Shannon Gilreath said during the Monday news conference.