Sparrows Point helped build the Key Bridge. Its collapse left residents isolated.
Andrew Morton stood in the sun on the smokestacks of a blast furnace the day the Francis Scott Key Bridge opened on March 23, 1977, watching the first cars cross the bridge. For him, the moment had a profound resonance. One of many steelworkers at the Bethlehem Steel Corp. at the north end of the bridge, he’d surely forged some of its metal.
Forty-seven years later, nearly to the day, Mr. Morton woke up on March 26 to videos he couldn’t believe. The Key Bridge had collapsed after it was hit by a cargo ship. “I could not believe that within seconds it was up, and within seconds it was down,” says Mr. Morton.
Not only did Mr. Morton and other residents of Sparrows Point play a role in building the bridge, but also it’s what connected them to
