The size of cargo ships has grown, our infrastructure is trying to catch up

It was a massive cargo ship striking a portion of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore that caused the catastrophic bridge collapse which captured the attention of the nation. Video of that collision showed how quickly the bridge buckled after the cargo ship named Dali struck one of the bridge’s support beams. If stood upright, the Dali would almost reach the top of the Eiffel Tower. The Dali’s size is considered to be average in the cargo industry. The size of cargo vessels has greatly increased since 1956, when the first commercially successful cargo ship was introduced. In this episode, I visit the Port of New Orleans to get a sense of why these ships have grown so much and why the port and others like it are building to host so called monsters of the sea.