Washington, 1 April

Describing the collapse of Francis Scott Key bridge last week as America's “national economic catastrophe”, Maryland Governor Wes Moore has said the removal of the wreckage of the bridge and the cargo ship that was mainly manned by an Indian crew is a complex and time-consuming operation.

The 2.6km-long, four-lane bridge over the Patapsco River in Baltimore came crashing down after Dali, a 984-foot cargo ship bound for Sri Lanka, collided against it in the early hours of Tuesday. There were eight workers on the bridge at the time. Two survived, two bodies have been found, and four more men are presumed dead.

The 22 crew members from India who have remained on the ship, named the Dali, since the disaster, the New York Times reported. "This is not a Baltimore catastrophe, not a Maryland catastrophe. This is a national economic catastrophe,” Moore told CNN in an interview on Sunday.

Moore said this port is one of the busiest, most active ports in the country. "So, this is not just going to have an impact on Maryland. This is going to impact the farmers in Kentucky. This is going to impact the auto dealer in Ohio. This is going to impact the restaurant owner in Tennessee,” he said.

"Whether you're talking about all those various industries, the Port of Baltimore is the largest in the country for all of those things. So, the reason that we need people to move on a bipartisan basis and move on a fast basis is not because we need you to do Maryland a favour. Maryland needs no favours. We need to make sure that we're moving quickly to get the American economy going again; because the Port of Baltimore is instrumental in our larger economic growth,” he said.

"This is not just about Maryland's economy. This is something that is impacting the nation's economy. This is the largest port for new cars, for heavy trucks, for agricultural equipment. So, this is impacting people all over the country,” Moore told MSNBC in another interview.

Appearing on Sunday morning talk shows, Moore said that one of the largest cranes, which has the capacity of lifting 1,000 tonnes, had arrived to remove the wreckage of the bridge and the cargo ship that was mainly manned by all Indian crew.

The crane has begun to “cut up the remnants of the bridge that we can then prepare for removal. The complicated nature of this is, we have a ship that is nearly the size of the Eiffel Tower that is now stuck within the channel that has the Key Bridge sitting on top of it,” Moore told CNN.

"We can't underestimate how difficult this task is. This is unprecedented where you have a ship that is almost the size of the Eiffel Tower that is stuck in the channel. That has the Key Bridge, which is 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes of steel that is sitting on top of it. This is a remarkably complex operation. And so frankly, our entire focus, all of our time, has been focused on that and nothing else,” he told MSNBC.

But this is going to be a long road. “It's a very complex operation, but movement is happening. And we're grateful for the people who are out there doing this work,” he said.