President Biden told Baltimore residents on Friday that “your nation has your back” as he stood in front of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, which was destroyed when a cargo ship passed through it last week, killing six people.
Mr. Biden faced a tangle of concrete and steel more than a mile long that has snarled traffic, devastated blue-collar communities and disrupted operations at one of America’s largest ports, threatening chaos that could ripple in supply chains.
Mr. Biden took an aerial tour of the damage and was briefed by officials overseeing the cleanup and rebuilding efforts, before meeting privately with the families of six construction workers who drowned in the Patapsco River when the bridge collapsed.
“We will continue to work hard to recover every one of them,” Mr. Biden said.
Hours after Mr. Biden left, local authorities announced the recovery of the body of a construction worker, the third to be found. They identified the man as 38-year-old Maynor Yasir Suazo Sandoval.
In his remarks, Mr. Biden described how workers had a break from filling potholes just before disaster struck. Seconds before, Mr. Biden said, one of the men, a 24-year-old, sent a text to his girlfriend that said: “We just poured cement and we’re waiting for it to dry.”
Mr. Biden spoke of the pain of losing loved ones, adding that “we will also never forget the contribution of these men to this city.”
In the week after the collapse, the administration funded cleanup of the port, unlocked $60 million in emergency funding to help rebuild the bridge, provided low-interest loans to affected businesses and oversaw efforts to manage any supply chain disruptions.
On Friday, Mr. Biden called on companies to commit to keeping employees — about 20,000 people depend on the port for jobs — on their payrolls as the port reopens. This week, senior administration officials, including Mr. Biden’s boss, called major employers in the Baltimore area, including retail chains like Home Depot and distributors like Amazon, to encourage them to keep workers.
“We will move heaven and earth to rebuild this bridge as quickly as possible,” Mr. Biden said. He called on Congress to help fulfill his promise that the federal government would pay to rebuild the bridge.
As he spoke, the steel girders of the bridge remained partially submerged in the water, reaching for the sky like hands from a grave. The giant cargo ship was still carrying dozens of colorful containers, and pieces of the broken bridge lay on the ship’s bow.
Local and federal officials said the road to recovery will be long.
“As you can see behind me, the physical impact of this tragedy is enormous,” said Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott. “But let’s be clear, the human impact is incalculable.”
In an update on response efforts, Tax. Gen. John P. Lloyd of the US Army Corps of Engineers described a “tangled mess” faced by 51 divers and 12 cranes. He told the president that a pending project was to remove a large section of the bridge that was on the ship. The section weighs 5,000 tons and is 125 feet tall.
The bridge collapsed overnight when a 985-foot cargo ship crashed into it shortly after leaving the Port of Baltimore, a vital economic engine that handles more cars and farm equipment than any other port in the country. The boat, the Dali, lost power before hitting the bridge, but sent a phone call that gave officials enough time to shut down the bridge.
But it was not enough time to reach the workers who were already on the bridge.
The bodies of two of the workers were recovered from the river on March 27. Recovery efforts for the remaining workers, who were presumed dead, were later called off. Authorities said the bodies were likely encased in steel and concrete.
Mr. Biden spoke fondly of his own ties to the Port of Baltimore, including his family working as sailors in the 1850s and his many years commuting from Delaware.
The structure, which took five years to build, opened in 1977 and served as a critical transportation link on the East Coast. Named after Francis Scott Key, the Maryland-born author of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Mr. Biden’s response drew praise from Gov. Wes Moore, who said he received the first call from the White House around 3 a.m., just 90 minutes after the collision.
“And every hour since we’ve been working hand-in-hand with this administration,” Mr. Moore said. “President Biden may not be a native Marylander. But I’m telling you, he’s proven what it means to be tough in Maryland and tough in Baltimore.”
Scott Cowan, president of the local chapter of the International Longshoremen’s Association, said he was encouraged by Mr Biden’s visit but believed more needed to be done.
As the weeks passed, Mr. Cowan said, the situation for the 2,400 members of his district became more difficult. About 400 people in the area were currently working, he said, with about 2,000 idle, about the reverse of the normal ratio.
If it was a gradual slowdown in work, people could adjust, he said, but “it was like hitting a wall” when the bridge collapsed and closed the harbor.
“President Biden knows about the ports,” Mr. Cowan said. “I think he wants to do something. But obviously Congress is involved.”
Jaycee Fortin contributed to the report.
