Mexican Navy ship crashes into New York City's Brooklyn Bridge

[PJMcK]

7. Fascinating

On more than two dozen occasions I’ve sailed boats up and down the East River where the Brooklyn Bridge is located. It’s a spunky piece of water and it’s not surprising if a ship operator is unaware of the tidal currents that flow upwards of 4 knots (5-6 mph).

What’s also interesting is the clearance beneath ALL bridges are clearly represented on nautical charts. If the masts and/or superstructure of the ship hit the bridge the port captain would have been unaware of the “air draft” necessary to clear the bridge. It’s kind of inexcusable ship handling.

What’s also curious is there are at least six bridges with at least 65-feet of clearance from the Battery to Long Island Sound. If the Mexican vessel exceeded that height it should not have traversed the East River.

To be clear, the so-called East River is not really a river but a tidal estuary. That means that the current changes direction about four times a day as the tides rotate between high and low water. Additionally, an estuary is a deeper area than where the “river” exits to the ocean. The East River is very deep but the New York harbor is much shallower.

It appears the skipper made a huge mistake. I sincerely hope none of the Mexican sailors were injured. The captain is going to have to explain the incident.

ETA: the clearance under the East River bridges is way over 100 feet so the Mexican sailing vessel should have been aware of the necessary dimensions for transiting the river.