President Joe Biden visits victims' families, surveys collapsed bridge, promises rebuild

Speaking near the Port of Baltimore and where the words were first penned, President Joseph R. Biden evoked the lyrics of the National Anthem — through a “perilous fight” — after a tour on Friday of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, which he vowed would be rebuilt.

He was introduced at the lectern — affixed with the presidential seal — by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who said the state’s largest city is “being tested” about 10 days after a vessel collided with the bridge named after Key, the author of The Star-Spangled Banner and a Maryland native, causing it to collapse in the early morning hours of March 26.

“We will support Maryland and Baltimore every step of the way to help you rebuild,” said Biden, on a cloudy day with the wreckage of the bridge behind him and the flags of both the nation and the state waving in the wind on flagpoles in front of him, outside of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police headquarters in Dundalk.

While the American flag flew at full-staff, the Maryland flag remained at half-staff, in accord with the governor’s order issued last week to honor the victims who died at work on the bridge. As of April 5, three of those individuals had been found while three others, all related to construction work that had been taking place on the bridge, were still unaccounted for by officials the day the president delivered his remarks with the Chesapeake Bay behind him.

According to the pool report provided from a White House reporter, the president met “privately with loved ones and family members of those who died” during his visit to Maryland on Friday.

More: Francis Scott Key Bridge 'connected family, communities, jobs' in Baltimore

Timeline given by commanding general of the US Army Corps of Engineers

The first official to speak during the public event, with a road sign for the Port of Baltimore in the distant background, was Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski. He called the community one “forged by steel,” alluding to the industry that shaped the area in the last century.

“We will rebuild together,” said Olszewski, thanking the president for his presence on site.

U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., who represents a Baltimore-area congressional district, said “circumstance has called us to this point.”

While helicopter blades spun and the president surveyed the collapsed bridge from the air earlier in the afternoon on Friday, Mfume commended the efforts of those on the ground, the Unified Command, comprised of both federal and state agencies, as well as those individuals in the water, the 51 divers, he said, that were under and over the bridge “helping to bring about the change.”

More: Bridge collapse: Limited channel opens near port. Senate committee passes emergency bill.

The day prior, the commanding general of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, part of that Unified Command, put forward what the general called “ambitious timelines” for reopening the channel, in a press release.

The release said a “limited access channel” would be open within the next four weeks — by the end of April — allowing for one-way traffic in and out of the Port of Baltimore for barge container service and some roll on/roll off vessels that move automobiles and farm equipment.

The release also called for reopening the permanent channel by the end of May, restoring the port to its full capacity. The operations at the port, one of the nation’s most active (ranked this year in the top 20 in tonnage and containers), have been severely reduced since the bridge’s collapse last week.

More: US Small Business Administration offers help to companies affected by bridge collapse

“We must do everything we can to meet that target,” said the state’s governor, in an April 4 release, referring to the corps timeline for reopening the Fort McHenry Channel. On Friday, Moore also announced the creation of the Maryland Tough Baltimore Strong Alliance, an organization of dozens of businesses that already had committed $15 million to recovery efforts.

“This port is so significant to the nation,” said Mfume, on Friday, miles from containers stacked up in his native city. The federal, state and local officials were assembled at a site about eight miles from where the American flag was “still there," in Key’s words, over Fort McHenry after the British bombing of Baltimore during the War of 1812.

Maryland U.S. Senator call for federal funding of bridge rebuild

The president, known for his Amtrak rides, indicated he was no stranger to the bridge, which prior to its collapse carried about 30,000 vehicles daily. He said he commuted across it from his home state of Delaware en route to the nation’s capital during his 36 years as a U.S. senator.

On Friday, the nation’s chief executive called on those in the Capitol to fund the bridge’s restoration.

“I stand here,” said Biden, with the backdrop of the broken bridge behind him, “I call on Congress to authorize this effort as soon as possible.”

Director of the Office of Management and Budget Shalanda Young sent a letter to congressional leaders that same day calling for a “100 percent Federal cost share” to rebuild the bridge.

“This authorization would be consistent with past catastrophic bridge collapses, including in 2007, when the Congress acted in a bipartisan manner within days of the I-35W bridge collapse in Minnesota,” said the letter, addressed to the top Republicans and top Democrats leading the congressional transportation and public works-related committees in each chamber.

Speaking before the president on Friday, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., Mfume, and he would introduce legislation “in the coming days” to codify the president’s federal funding pledge.

Alluding to Key in the closing of his remarks, Biden called the rebuilding a “perilous challenge.”

“Because we are the United States of America, there’s nothing, nothing, nothing, beyond our capacity when we do it together,” the president said.

Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: 'We will support Maryland,' Biden says after surveying bridge collapse