No, that's not dynamite in video of Baltimore Key bridge collapse | Fact check

Joedy McCreary, USA TODAY
Updated ·4 min read

The claim: Video shows ‘dynamite’ detonating during Baltimore bridge collapse

A March 26 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a TikTok video of a man examining news footage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore and pointing to several locations on the structure.

“You can see dynamite being let off at every single point,” the man says. “Here. Here. Here. Charges. Boom.”

It was shared more than 100 times in a day. The original TikTok video was shared more than 1,800 times in a day.

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Our rating: False

That’s not what the video shows, according to bridge and explosives experts. The clip shows lights flashing on and near the bridge and sparks from power cables that severed during the collapse, experts said. Officials have said there's no evidence the collapse was an intentional act.

Claim of dynamite detonation ‘absolutely ridiculous’

The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River at around 1:30 a.m. ET March 26. A cargo vessel leaving the Port of Baltimore struck one of the structure’s columns, sending sections of the massive structure plunging into the water.

But the claim in the TikTok video is false. Footage of the collapse does not show dynamite being detonated on the bridge, according to experts on bridges and explosives.

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“I think it is absolutely ridiculous,” said Dan Frangopol, the chair of structural engineering and architecture at Lehigh University and the founding president of the International Association for Bridge Maintenance and Safety, when presented the claim.

Experts pointed out several flaws in the post's claim.

First, for steel structures like the Key Bridge, dynamite would not be the explosive used, said Kyle Perry, an explosives expert and an associate professor in the mining and explosives engineering department at the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Rather, linear shaped charges – which produce cutting jets to sever a wide range of materials – would blast copper through the steel at high speeds, he said.

“If they used dynamite to cut steel, it would take a whole lot of it, and my guess is there would be broken windows all around the area,” Perry said.

Also, the detonation of any explosive would leave residue in the water, but there are no indications any such residue has been found, Frangopol said.

There are no credible news reports indicating any explosives were set off on the bridge or that the collapse involved anything beyond a ship striking the bridge’s column.

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and elsewhere have said there's no sign the bridge collapse was an intentional act.

And while explosives are frequently used in controlled demolitions of bridges and other structures, the collapse in Baltimore bears little resemblance to those. Those demolitions generated significantly more smoke and dust than what was visible in the footage from Baltimore.

At one point, the TikTok video shows a fire breaking out on the bridge as it collapses and sparks emitting from it. The man in the video wrongly claims it is evidence of an explosive. Instead, it “appears to come from electrical cables being severed,” Perry said.

“The sparks are a key indicator to me that it was not a high explosive like dynamite,” he said. “High explosives will be a bright flash of light with some potential flash of fire if any combustible material is very close by.”

The man in the video also mistakes lights behind the bridge for explosions, Ben Schafer, a professor of civil and systems engineering at Johns Hopkins University, told USA TODAY.

“You can see the same light, frame by frame, as the bridge goes downward,” Schafer said in an email. “It never changes.”

USA TODAY previously debunked a false claim that a viral video shows a massive explosion on the bridge and that the bridge collapse was caused by a cyberattack.

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook and TikTok users who shared the video but did not immediately receive responses from either.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Baltimore's Key Bridge wasn't detonated by dynamite | Fact check