2mo ago

Brooklyn Bridge struck by Mexican navy training ship, 2 dead, NYC mayor says

www.cbsnews.com

Brooklyn Bridge hit by Mexican navy training ship, 2 dead, 19 injured, officials say

11 comments

TLDR:
No major damage to the bridge
It was a masted ship and the mast hit the bridge
Injured and killed were all on the ship
It doesn't look so bad until you notice that there were people all the way up the masts. It's a really big ship so you don't notice them at first.
- Yeah, it's hard to get a sense of the scale from some of those videos. For an idea, it's 127 feet vertical from the bridge to the water. Anyone who was on those masts when it hit very likely fell a very significant distance. It's honestly enough of a height that I don't know if it would've been better to land on the ship or in the water, but the outcome is guaranteed to be terrible, either way.
  
  You would fall for around 2.8–3.0 seconds, so you would reach a velocity of around 60–65 mph, so you better angle yourself perfectly; feet first to avoid major injuries. Compared to hitting the deck, which would would be like crashing a car at roughly 62 mph into a solid wall. So the waters definitely the better option.
A Mexican navy training ship with huge masts and sails? I'm confused.
- Might be like the USS Constitution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constitution which occasionally goes sailing for show.
- You never know when they'll have to take on a Spanish brig again
I'm guessing this ship has been in the Mexican naval fleet since the 1500s.
Adams said in a social media post the Cuauhtemoc lost power before it crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge.
If it lost power did it get stuck in reverse? In other videos it certainly looks like it was moving stern side backwards and then under the bridge.
- If it lost power it wouldn't be moving under power at all. It would be drifting from wind and water.
  
  Right on, I was unaware how strong the currents and conditions were under the bridge.

11 comments