Tag: Key Bridge

The Cursed Novel Strikes Again

A while back, I wrote about the novel I’ve written. That post is titled “The Cursed Novel.”

It does not have an ending, but now I know it needs one, and I finally know how to do it.

You see, I painted myself into a corner. I couldn’t figure out what to do next. Any ending I tried turned out to be uneven or silly. After taking the reader for a great ride, I couldn’t publish it with a lame ending. So, since 2013, it’s been unfinished.

I’ve had several test readers. All of them seemed to like it. Then bad things began to happen to them. Lost jobs, accidents, the deaths of close friends, money losses. You name it.

But I have more bad news. The story revolves around the main characters who try to help people, and the whole time, disasters keep happening. One such disaster was the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Yes, I wrote that. And that was back in 2010. I never dreamed of it really happening, but now it has.

I was planning on publishing it on Amazon, but now, I think that to stop the things I wrote from happening, I should end the book and then destroy it.

I remember when the Francis Scott Key Bridge didn’t exist. I remember when it was being built. I remember being one of the first to cross it.

The bridge was dangerous. The winds in the outer harbor were especially fierce, and no trucker with an empty trailer was allowed to cross when wind warnings were posted. I once pulled a 48-foot trailer loaded with pallets across, and what had seemed like nothing in a car surprised me. It had a steep enough climb that I had to gear down and turn on my hazard lights.

In the summers, the salt water smell made me wish I was going to Ocean City.

On the center span, you bounced. Bridges have to flex to stay up to accommodate the crosswinds and heavy traffic. I never did get used to that, and from 1998 to 2001, I crossed it every day on my commute. It was weird that so many freaky things happened on the bridge: ice flying off a rig’s roof and smashing out my headlights, changing lanes without meaning to during a tropical storm, and more.

And I scripted its demise. Some things in my book have come true, and that doesn’t seem possible because the whole thing is fantasy.

I really think, even as I know better, that once I close out the novel, I should burn it.

The Francis Scott Key Bridge is No More

The following is from Wikipedia:

The main spans of the bridge were destroyed on March 26, 2024, when the container ship MV Dali crashed into one of its support pillars.[7]

That was a fast update.

It doesn’t reflect, though, the hardships ahead for the families of 6 missing men who were working on the span patching potholes caused by winter weather. Nor does it say anything about the traffic disaster that the closing of this main artery of I-695, the “beltway” around Baltimore City, is causing. Traffic will be so severely affected that it is impossible to fathom.

This says nothing, either, about the shutdown of the critical marine terminals and massive amounts of cargo they handle. Once the wreckage has been cleared, ships will again be free to enter the port, but the bridge was a steel arch type that will be challenging to clear from the channel. Parts of the structure remain above water but end underwater: one end in, and one end out of the main channel. It is a shocking sight.

There’s little here to point to as blame. The container ship lost power and did issue a mayday call, enabling the county and toll facilities police to close all approaching highway traffic. Lives were undoubtedly saved in this way.

The search continues for the 6 missing workers by the US Coast Guard, a zone of no entry by marine craft or aircraft has been established, the governor and Transportation Secretary Buttigieg, Senator Ben Cardin and President Biden have been working on this situation since it happened at around 01:30 this morning. It is a serious matter, and they are fully aware and dedicated to their work.

From Guardian News on YouTube, here is the moment of impact and collapse. Both are within seconds of each other, and I warn you, the video may cause you shock and distress.

Credit: Guardian News, an organization I implicitly trust.

Please pray for the families and the missing, and for the men and women who will be tasked with solving this daunting challenge.