President Joe Biden took an aerial tour on Friday of the collapsed Baltimore bridge that is blocking a key East Coast shipping lane, and he pledged federal help in rebuilding the span, an idea some Republican lawmakers in the U.S. Congress have resisted.

A cargo ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, sending it splashing into the harbor. Work to clear the wreckage and restore traffic through the Mid-Atlantic state's shipping channel is ongoing.

President Joe Biden reiterated in Baltimore Friday that the federal government will provide total assistance to the city as it cleans up and rebuilds the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The U.S. state of Maryland has opened a temporary channel on the northbound side of the collapsed Baltimore bridge, allowing limited tug and barge traffic around the container ship stuck at the disaster site, Governor Wes Moore said on Monday.

"It will help us to get more vessels in the water around the site of the collapse," Moore told a news conference.

Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse could cost insurers billions of dollars in claims, analysts say, with one putting it at as much as $4 billion, which would make the tragedy a record shipping insurance loss.

Six people are still missing after a collision with a Singapore-flagged container ship destroyed the landmark bridge on Tuesday, forcing the closure of one of the busiest U.S. ports.

The nation awoke Tuesday to images of a ghastly tragedy: Baltimore’s iconic Francis Scott Key Bridge had collapsed after a giant cargo ship lost power — and control — and slammed into one of the bridge’s key support columns. Several vehicles and eight construction workers were on the bridge, and rescue crews raced to save them from the cold water of early spring. As Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott (D) said: “A bridge can be rebuilt, but our focus is on those people.”

In the aftermath of the tragic collision of a cargo ship into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, hot-take artists immediately pointed to diversity, equity, and inclusion as the main culprit. 

Anthony Sabatini, a Republican congressional candidate from Florida, posted a video of the bridge collapse with the caption, “DEI did this.” 

Republican Utah lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman shared a post on X, drawing attention to Baltimore Port Commissioner Karenthia Barber’s prior work in a diversity consulting firm. 

The immediate impact of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on Tuesday was viscerally clear: In minutes, the Baltimore Harbor went from a humming logistics hub to a chaotic search and rescue operation. Two construction workers who had been fixing potholes on the bridge were pulled from the water, with six more missing and presumed dead.

The first shot in the legal fight over who will pay for the damage and loss from the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge will likely occur in the next few days in a Baltimore courtroom, insurance academics said.

The Singaporean owner of the cargo ship that took down the bridge is expected to invoke a law dating back to the 19th century that limits the liability of ships’ owners, according to Lawrence Brennan, a law professor at Fordham University in New York. The law is similar to one used by the Titanic’s owners after that “unsinkable” liner hit an iceberg.

Even before most Americans woke up Tuesday morning to news of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, wild conspiracy theories about what supposedly had “really” happened were running rampant online.

The claims ranged from a cyber-attack or a ship captain impaired by side effects from Covid-19 vaccines being responsible for the crash – to claims that Israel, or even the Obamas had something to do with the bridge’s collapse.