"And the rockets' red glare
B-bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night
That our bridge was still there..."
Oops.
Kidding aside (I've laughed at the "P-Diddy blew up the bridge" memes), it's a massive hit to the Mid-Atlantic economy and transporation infrastructure plus the people that unfortunately died. As far as rebuilding to pull a number out of my backside I would think we're talking 5 years at a minimum, probably more like 8. If they have to do redesign instead of a pure rebuild it's going to be longer. There's going to be a pressing need to clean up the bay to allow the port to become functional again and that'll be first priority. Baltimore is going to lose their port for a period of time, and they're also going to lose residual economic effects from everyone that used that highway the bridge was on as well as the port as a central nexus.
As far as the federal government are going to pay full costs for this. We're not hitting up the ship's owner's insurance obligations on this, really? I know maritime shipping ownership and liability is opaque as hell on purpose, but seriously? I hope they're just planning to cover the upfront costs and then go after that aspect of it all later in a lawsuit that will roll on for years and probably get settled in the year 2036 or something.
I think the economic hit will mostly be limited to Maryland and will be fairly minor in other states. Also the port should be up and running as soon as the debris is cleared out which shouldn’t take too long.
