He Built the Baltimore Bridge—Then Mourned Its Collapse
Just after 6 a.m. on Tuesday, John “Buddy” Cefalu turned on the TV news and watched the 1.6-mile bridge that he and 100 other ironworkers built nearly a half century ago collapse.
He imagined the ear-splitting noise that must have filled the early morning darkness as the Francis Scott Key Bridge fell into the Patapsco River in Baltimore.
“When it started going, it was going to sound like World War III with all those bolts popping,” he told The Daily Beast. “Some of those bolts in the main span that held that thing together were six to eight inches long.”