The salvage operation involving Eggner’s Ferry Bridge and the M/V Delta Mariner began in earnest on Saturday morning, as onlookers from Kentucky and surrounding states saw the damage for the first time.

Lieutenant Jennifer Jessee with the U.S. Coast Guard said the cargo ship was dislodged at about 10:15 a.m. on Monday after it was cut free from subsurface debris, and it was moved about a mile north of the bridge so that crews could remove the remaining debris from the bow of the ship – the third phase of Foss Maritime’s salvage operation.

Commander Claudia Gelzer, commanding officer of the Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit in Paducah, called the moving of the ship “a significant milestone.”

Keith Todd, public information officer for Districts One and two of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, said, “The U.S. Coast Guard and a spokesman for Foss Maritime, the ship’s owner, indicated that the salvage work would move ahead at a slow pace with the safety of salvage workers as the highest priority.”

Jessee didn’t know how long the third phase would last but did say that the first phase and second phases were completed in a shorter time than was scheduled, as workers cut loose pieces of the bridge that had caused the ship to be stuck to the bottom of the lake.

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