DUNDALK, Md. (CN) — President Joe Biden on Friday met with the families of the six people killed when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed last week near Baltimore. He pledged to continue federal support for the rebuilding effort.
Biden received an operational briefing from local and state officials in the Baltimore suburb of Dundalk, Maryland, near the site of the collapsed bridge.
“We’re going to move heaven and earth to reopen this bridge as soon as humanly possible,” he said.
Six people died last week when the bridge, located just south of Baltimore, collapsed after it was hit by a Singapore-flagged container ship. The 1.6-mile bridge, part of the heavily traveled Interstate 95 corridor, carried as many as 35,000 vehicles daily.
Biden has said he plans for the federal government to fully pay for the bridge's reconstruction, Last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation made $60 million available to local and state officials to begin work.
On Friday, Biden spent several minutes memorializing the six people who were killed in the collapse, trying to relate to their pain from the loss of his son.
“I’ve come here to grieve with you,” he said. “It’s not the same, but I know a little bit about what it’s like to lose a piece of your soul, to get that phone call in the middle of the night to say your family member’s gone … It’s feeling like having a black hole in your chest.”
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the bridge and port are the jurisdiction of a menagerie of entities. Despite the potential for bureaucratic entanglements, he said all responders are focused on recovery.
“We are all a team here,” he said.
Prior to Biden’s remarks, local and regional officials thanked the federal government for a quick and robust response to the collapse.
“I cannot tell you what it means to have this level of support in one of our darkest moments,” said Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said the city will recover from the loss of a major transportation artery and the closure of its port.
“Baltimore is strong,” he said. “We will rebuild and come back even stronger.”
Maryland Governor Wes Moore said Biden has been a “full partner” in responding to the collapse.
“I know our state’s largest city is being tested right now,” he said. “But Baltimore has been tested before. We get knocked down, we stand back up, we dust ourselves off and we move forward.”
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