On Thursday, a barge crashed into the Fort Madison Bridge in Iowa and later sank into the Mississippi River.
The incident occurred just after 1 p.m., and the nearly 100-year-old Swing Gate Bridge was closed, but was reopened around 4:15 p.m., officials said. There were no reports of injuries.
The U.S. Coast Guard told Fox News Digital that 15 barges were being moved by tugboats when one of them broke loose and crashed into a Fort Madison railroad bridge.
Video shows the barge stuck on the double-decker bridge connecting Fort Madison to Niota, Illinois.
Maryland: Ship collides with Francis Scott Key Bridge and collapses
A large floating barge crashed into the Fort Madison Bridge in Iowa on Thursday, then sank in the Mississippi River. The nearly 100-year-old bridge was closed due to this incident, but it has reopened. (@PurposefulLight / Local News X /TMX)
In another video, a barge can be seen sinking into the river away from the bridge, with a boat alongside it.
The incident brings back memories of the tragic Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 6th. Six construction workers were killed when a Sri Lanka-bound container ship collided with a structure and fell into the Port of Baltimore.
Lee County Sheriff Stacey Weber told KHQA that while Thursday’s incident was an unfortunate situation, it could have been much worse.
“I think he contained it as much as possible, and I mean, no one got hurt, so that’s the important thing,” Weber said. “Everything else can be fixed.”
The bridge was closed to all traffic so BNSF could assess the damage. This bridge has a double-track railway on the lower deck and two lanes of road traffic on the upper deck. It is unclear how many vehicles were on the bridge at the time or whether a train was on board when the barge crashed into the bridge.
See 35 major U.S. bridges that have collapsed due to ship or barge strikes since 1960
An accurate map of the Fort Madison Bridge. (Google Maps)
The Fort Madison Police Department announced online that BNSF Railway, which owns the bridge, has certified the bridge as safe and given the green light to reopen it to rail and vehicle traffic.
A representative for the barge towing company told WGEM that the barge was transporting corn and is owned by Nashville, Tennessee-based Ingram Barge Company.
According to Hawk Eye, between 40 and 100 trains will cross the bridge every day in 2022.
The bridge is approximately one mile long and has a swing span of 525 feet, making it the longest and largest double-decker swing span bridge in the world when it opened in 1927, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation.
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Aerial view of the cargo ship Dali sitting in the ocean after colliding with the Francis Scott Key Bridge and collapsing on March 26 in Baltimore, Maryland. Thursday’s incident in Iowa brought back memories of that incident. (Tassos Katopodis/Getty Images)
The incident comes about four weeks after more than 20 river barges broke loose from their moorings and drifted down the Ohio River in Pittsburgh, hitting one bridge that was already closed as a precaution and damaging a marina. occurred, officials said.
The boats eventually became anchored to the riverbank or crossed a dam downstream.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
