By D’Mari Dreher-Smith
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
On March 26, 2024, the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in the middle of the night after one of the main support beams was struck by a cargo ship that lost power, killing six construction workers.
Two years later, the Baltimore Museum of Industry is keeping their memories alive.
The “Key Bridge: Building a Baltimore Landmark” exhibit opened on March 28 and is the first of the museum’s multi-year “Preserving a Legacy: Echoes from the Key Bridge” initiative in an effort to preserve the human and economic effects of the bridge’s collapse.
The exhibit is also the museum’s first bilingual exhibition with complete Spanish translation.
“Seeing the exhibit firsthand, I was moved by how thoughtfully it honors the lives affected by the Key Bridge collapse while also helping tell the broader story of what this tragedy meant for Baltimore’s workers, families and economy,” Ashley Mancinelli, the vice president of philanthropy for the Baltimore Community Foundation, a benefactor for the exhibit, said in a prepared statement. “It is a powerful example of how storytelling can preserve memory, deepen understanding, and create space for reflection and healing.”
The bridge, which opened to the public in March 1977 after a decade of planning controversy, cost overruns, and construction delays, was a key piece of infrastructure for the Port of Baltimore.
While some wondered about the effects the collapse would have on congestion and traffic, it became clear that the greatest effect would be economic decline.
After the collapse, the port was closed in a massive effort to clear up the wreckage, sending a shockwave of economic impact locally, regionally and nationally.
The closure disrupted supply chains, increased costs, and disrupted the generation of $3.3 billion in personal income, $2.6 billion in business revenue and almost $400 million in tax revenue, according to a statement from Gov. Wes Moore.
The museum, founded in 1977 to preserve the industrial history of downtown Baltimore, features a cannery, a print shop, and is home to “The Baltimore,” the oldest surviving steam tugboat in the country. But the museum’s temporary exhibit has drawn visitors, sponsors and attention to Baltimore’s ever-changing economy.
The guest curator and historian for the exhibit was Deborah Weiner, a private consultant. The interpretive specialist is Verónica E. Betancourt and the exhibition designer was Jeremy Hoffman.
The exhibit uses first-person accounts, artwork, historical photographs and artifacts to tell the Key Bridge’s story from conception to collapse – and now it’s rebuild. In the middle of a single floor museum, visitors will find a room with walls wrapped with pictures of the bridge at sunset in the Patapsco River.
On one wall, the exhibit explores the origin of the bridge. It shows that in the early 1960s, Baltimore was spreading and the road system couldn’t keep up. Demand for a second harbor crossing other than the Harbor Tunnel grew. Debates on whether the crossing should be a tunnel or a bridge went on for years, the exhibit says, before authorities decided that a bridge offered the lowest cost and the greatest traffic capacity.
The next wall highlights the cultural impact of the bridge in Baltimore. The exhibit states that the bridge’s location in the harbor, Baltimore’s defining feature, made it a “marker of the city’s identity.”
The exhibit also features Logan Lambert and Finch Flores, Dundalk rappers who mourned the bridge’s collapse and honored the men who died in their song “It’s a Dundalk Thing (Francis Key Scott Bridge Song).”
The final wall focuses on the collapse of the bridge and the six lives lost.
Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, Carlos Daniel Hernandez, Miguel Angel Luna Gonzales, José Mynor López and Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval lost their lives in the bridge collapse. The six men were immigrants from Mexico and Central America.
As part of the exhibit, Carlos Alexis Suazo Sandoval, brother of Maynor, highlighted his family’s immigrant status and the life he looked to live.
“A dream of a better life brought us to the United States,” Sandoval is quoted as saying.
The installation also features a panel of a mural done by Texas-based artist Roberto Márquez to honor the fallen workers. The artwork was erected in Hawkins Point, where the community gathered to pay their respects, leaving scriptures and messages of hope and love.
Beyond the exhibit, the Key Bridge rebuild continues. One of the major impacts has been on local businesses.
According to a report by the Maryland Chamber of Commerce and several other organizations, 64% of small businesses in the broader Baltimore region reported revenue loss due to the collapse, with much of that coming in Baltimore County.
According to the Maryland Transportation Authority’s Key Bridge Rebuild, the project is in its bridge design and pre-construction activities and is expected to be open to traffic in 2030.
Delbert Riemer, a senior museum educator and teacher for 40 years, says the city must remember its history and continue forward.
“It’s symbolic, it’s sentimental, it’s people’s livelihood,” Reimer said in an interview. “We want to keep commerce going, and we need whatever design so that we don’t nearly have as much potential of this happening again.”
The museum will continue its “Echoes from the Key Bridge” project with a second, long-term exhibition highlighting the Key Bridge, the Port of Baltimore, and the people whose work sustains it.