What the Empire State Building can teach us about the Baltimore bridge collapse

Rumor has it that Americans across the country will feel the effects of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridges’s collapse for quite some time. Officials claim that it will take years for the bridge to be rebuilt, which will have dire effects not only on importation and exportation but also jobs, as “the Port of Baltimore creates over 15,300 jobs,” and “over 140,000 jobs [are] linked to the activity at the port.”

For those who don’t know, the Port of Baltimore is the nation’s “leading import/export site for cars and trucks,” so Americans waiting for a car to come in from overseas are in for a rude awakening, as the time of delivery is expected to increase exponentially.

But it’s not just the automobile industry that will be impacted. Last year alone, “A record 52.3 million tons of foreign cargo” was transported through the Port of Baltimore, but now the port has been entirely shut down due the bridge’s collapse that has left the only shipping lane blocked.

“An expert on property damage cases in the shipping industry told the New York Post that ‘the collapse will have a major impact on shipping and traffic routes on the East coast for the foreseeable future.’”

While many will hear these reports and fear what this means for the country, all Glenn Beck hears is a bunch of unnecessary doomsday-ing.

“Have we forgotten who we are? Have we forgotten what we’ve done?” he asks, calling attention to the spirit of America, which is “so potent and so vibrant that it has scaled towering mountains.”

America has “constructed marvels of engineering” and “buildings that scraped the sky,” he encourages.

In 1930, “The Great Depression had its icy grip on us. It was a time when everybody felt the flickering candle in the vast darkness ... yet it was in this crucible of adversity that Americans did great things. The Empire State Building rose. It wasn’t just a structure of steel and stone; it was a beacon of hope and American resilience and ingenuity,” says Glenn.

“In a record-shattering one year and 45 days, an army of workers ... transformed this audacious vision into a towering reality.”

So, what does the Empire State Building — a marvel that was constructed at a “feverish pace” and “defied the laws of time physics” — have to do with Baltimore’s bridge?

According to Glenn, everything.

The Empire State Building and other man-made marvels “are not merely historical footnotes. They are blazing torches illuminating our path forward. They remind us ... that when we are faced with adversity, we don’t just endure it. We overcome it. We don’t wait for history to chart our course. We write it with the sweat of our brow and the strength of our backs,” he says.

“That’s who we are.”

To hear more of Glenn's encouraging message, watch the clip below.

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