Tides, A Full Moon, Days Of Digging: How Ship Was Freed In Suez Canal

Egyptian authorities were desperate to get traffic flowing again through the waterway that's a conduit for about 12% of world trade and about 1 million barrels of oil a day.

A nearly week-long saga to dislodge a giant container ship stuck in the Suez Canal reached an end Monday as the vessel was freed and traffic resumed through the vital waterway. Authorities expected operations to return to normal within days. And she has arrived at the bitter lakes. The moment she's entering the waters. Live! pic.twitter.com/4BrphYU3rL Hundreds of vessels carrying everything from oil to livestock were forced to wait in line after the Ever Given became stuck in the canal. The accident was a stark reminder of the fragility of global trade infrastructure and threatened to further strain supply lines already stretched by the pandemic. Horns sounded in celebration as the container ship -- which is longer than the Eiffel Tower and weighs 220,000 tons -- limped up the canal after a painstaking operation that saw teams of tugs and dredgers working day and night. Salvage teams used the tides and a full moon to pull the ship from deep inside the sandy bank it had smashed into last week amid high winds and poor visibility. As part of their efforts, they shoveled 30,000 cubic meters (1 million cubic feet) of sand and even removed part of the canal wall.