“Our Bridge Infrastructure Is Safe,” NYC Deputy Mayor Joshi Reassures New Yorkers

By Yehudit Garmaise

“We want New Yorkers to rest assured that the right precautions are in place to ensure that our [bridge] infrastructure is safe and remains safe,” Meera Joshi, NYC’s Deputy Mayor, told reporters at City Hall after a cargo ship caused the collapse the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.

As soon as a massive container ship hit a support column of the Baltimore bridge, which was built 47 years ago, almost to the day, a terrible crash thundered into the night, and the thoroughfare immediately toppled into the icy Patapsco River.

Both trucks and ships occasionally hit bridges, pointed Joshi, who explained, “Our own bridge infrastructure is some of the most highly monitored infrastructure in the nation. Also, the coordination with vessels and our bridge communication is highly sophisticated. We have the right protections in place.”

To find out how New York City can help Baltimore right now, which is sadly experiencing a state of emergency, Mayor Adams told reporters that he told Deputy Mayor Louis Molina to reach out to Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott.

“We have a call in with the mayor there,” Mayor Adams said. “We want to make sure we can help any way we can.”

“Our thoughts are with the workers who were on those bridges,” Deputy Mayor Joshi said. “That is a dangerous job to begin with. An event like that is completely unforeseen when people wake up and go to work knowing they have a dangerous job. So certainly, our hearts are with them.”