The powerful floating crane that helped carry out what the CIA called one of the “greatest intelligence coups of the Cold War” has arrived at the site of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore and begun clearing debris.
The Chesapeake 1000, which Unified Command told Fox News Digital “can carry up to 1,000 tons,” arrived at the Patapsco River wreck site late last night, where four construction workers were killed after Tuesday’s collapse. The body is still missing.
The crane was originally built as a Sun 800 in 1972 to help build the Hughes Glomar Explorer, a deep-sea vessel used by the CIA in a top-secret mission called “Project Azorian” to recover a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine in the Pacific Ocean. It was built as. According to Engineering News-Record, we’re in the midst of a cold war.
Its capacity was later increased from 800 tons to 1,000 tons and it was acquired in 1993 by New Jersey-based Donjon Marine, which confirmed the details in a report to FOX News Digital on Friday.
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Chesapeake 1000 floating crane in Baltimore, Maryland on Friday, March 29th. (Griff Jenkins/Fox News)
Donjon Marine Co. Inc. says on its website that the floating crane barge is approximately 200 feet long with a 231-foot boom. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Thursday described the crane as “the largest crane on the East Coast.”
The cargo ship Dali collided with a bridge pillar on Tuesday, causing the bridge to collapse and killing six people.
On Thursday, the Key Bridge Response 2024 Joint Command, which includes the Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers, Maryland State Police and other agencies, said “members in the field continue to assess and monitor the oil spill and hazardous materials.” said. Prevent further discharge or release into the marine environment. ”
“First responders observed a sheen around the ship. The ship was loaded with a total of 56 containers containing hazardous materials,” the statement added. “Fourteen people were affected. The 14 affected people were assessed by an industrial hygienist for potential hazards.”
Senate Republicans say funding bill to replace the Baltimore Key Bridge could take shape “within weeks.”
This image taken from video released by the National Transportation Safety Board shows the cargo ship Dali becoming trapped under part of the bridge structure after colliding with the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. There is. (NTSB/AP)
The CIA said the Azorian program was inspired by the K-129, a Soviet Golf II-class submarine carrying three SS-N-4 nuclear ballistic missiles, which sank about 1,800 miles northwest of Hawaii in 1968. ing.
The ship used in that mission, the Hughes Glomar Explorer, was “ostensibly a commercial deep-sea mining vessel built and owned by billionaire Howard Hughes, who was responsible for his ship’s ability to conduct oceanographic research at extreme depths.” “Manganese nodules lie on the ocean floor,” the CIA said.
The Explorer eventually pulled out part of the submarine in 1974, including the bodies of six Soviet soldiers, but another part broke off about halfway through the water, the CIA said. A second mission to recover the lost parts failed after details of the program were exposed by the media a year later.
The Glomar Explorer ship is seen anchored at the U.S. Naval Defense Reserve Fleet in Suisen Bay, California, in this U.S. Navy handout photo taken on May 15, 1977. This ship was built by the CIA in 1974 for a secret Cold War mission. Raising a sunken Soviet submarine. The 619-foot ship, named the Hughes Gromar Explorer, was eventually part of a convoy used by Swiss company Transocean to drill for oil after billionaire Howard Hughes was brought in during a CIA deception. became part of. (Reuters/U.S. Navy/Washington Naval Heritage Command Archives)
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“Although Project Azorian did not fully achieve its intelligence goals, the CIA considered the operation to be one of the greatest intelligence coups of the Cold War era.”
