Biden Tells Baltimore: ‘Your Nation Has Your Back’

President Biden told the people of Baltimore on Friday that “your nation has your back” as he stood in front of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, which was destroyed after a cargo ship plowed through it last week, killing six people.

Mr. Biden encountered a tangle more than a mile long of concrete and steel that has snarled traffic, devastated blue-collar communities and disrupted operations at one of America’s biggest ports, threatening chaos that could ripple across supply chains.

“We’re going to move heaven and earth to rebuild this bridge as rapidly as humanly possible,” Mr. Biden said. He called on Congress to help fulfill his promise that the federal government to pay to rebuild the bridge.

Mr. Biden took an aerial tour of the damage and received a briefing from officials overseeing the cleanup and rebuilding efforts, before meeting privately with families of six construction workers who plunged into the Patapsco River when the bridge collapsed.

“The damage is devastating, and our hearts are still breaking,” he said in his public remarks.

Mr. Biden described how the workers had been on a break from filling potholes right before disaster struck. Just seconds before, Mr. Biden said, one of the men, a 24-year-old, sent a message to his girlfriend that said, “We just poured cement, and we’re waiting for it to dry.”

“We’ll also never forget the contributions these men made to this city,” Mr. Biden said. “We’re going to keep working hard to recover each of them.”