The Patapsco River looks quite different than it did two years ago.

On March 25, 2024, the metal lattice of the Francis Scott Key Bridge towered over the water as it had for 47 years. A day later, Baltimore awoke to it lying broken across the bow of a container ship. Seven construction workers fell with the bridge after the Dali collided with one of its support piers. Six died.

Thursday is the second anniversary of the collapse. With remnants of the former bridge still in the water like concrete monuments to that day and no new bridge against the horizon, some wonder what’s taking so long.

But as far as major infrastructure goes, the team is moving at “breakneck speed,” said Jim Harkness, the Maryland Transportation Authority’s chief engineer.

Harkness’ team and the private bridge builder, Kiewit, condensed what typically would be five to seven years of preparation and design work into about 14 months. That’s enough to get construction crews on the water to set the foundation as the team finalizes the design.

On the river Thursday morning, metal struck metal every two seconds. The bang slowly crescendoed as the state buoy tender A.V. Sandusky approached the bridge site at about six knots with a news media tour.

Nearby, a tugboat pulled a barge carrying stacks of multicolored shipping containers — the Port of Baltimore carries on even amid active construction.

The pounding comes from a vibration hammer affixed to a 500-ton crane. It’s driving 220-foot steel piles into the river bottom only a couple hundred feet from the concrete remnants of the former bridge; 45 pilings will go in for each of the bridge’s future towers rising 600 feet in the air. In time, the pilings will get cut to uniform height above the water, then concrete will be cast on top.

The pilings sit at nearby Tradepoint Atlantic, the former steel plant site in Dundalk, until crews are ready to bring them out and drive them into place.

Gov. Wes Moore and other elected officials took their own boat tour later that morning before holding a commemorative event in the afternoon.

“Things look different, but the memories of that March morning, they remain clear as ever,” Moore said. “We remember the sorrow. We remember the prayers ... we remember six patriots.”

Renderings of the new bridge show what will one day be a sleek, modern, cable-stayed structure. But it will be several years before its final shape coalesces. If all goes to plan, a highway deck suspended by a web of 144 cables won’t rise above the Patapsco until 2028 or 2029, with an estimated opening to traffic in 2030.

First come the towers, new approach spans, and roughly $1 billion of football-field-sized concrete fenders to prevent another errant ship from striking one of the bridge supports.

The first phase of demolition of what remained of the old bridge wrapped in January. Crews removed the sections of the approach spans reachable from land.

Two large sections — each with four concrete piers connected by steel crossbars — still stand to remind Baltimore of what was lost. Removing them requires the same heavy machinery that will build the future bridge, so they’ll come down during a later construction stage.

The work is methodical. It’s also gotten caught up in politics.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy met with Moore earlier this year to discuss how to speed up construction and the project’s rising price tag. Projects like this typically take years of planning, design and engineering before any construction begins; Maryland didn’t get the luxury of time for such a crucial link.

Officials initially anticipated opening the bridge in 2028 at a cost of less than $2 billion. The state updated those figures last November after a more detailed analysis. The most recent estimates have it opening in 2030 at a cost between $4.3 billion and $5.2 billion. The federal government has committed to paying it all.

Even at that pace, Moore said it’s the fastest-moving bridge project in the country, going at “historic speed” without compromising safety.

“I plan on being the governor who cuts the ribbon to reopen the Francis Scott Key Bridge,” said Moore, who wouldn’t leave office until 2031 if he wins a second term. “At a time when too many people wonder whether building big and great things is still possible in our country, Maryland, once again, is going to lead the way and show what is possible.”