Salvage crews working on the wreckage from last week's collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge spent Thursday clearing a third channel in the Patapsco River capable of getting larger ships through to the Port of Baltimore.WBAL-TV 11 News accompanied an Army Corps of Engineers crew to get as close as one can to the bridge wreckage."I think it's important to be able to explain the magnitude of this and the complexity," said Col. Estee Pinchasin, commander of the Baltimore District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.As the search continues for the victims of the collapse, multiple salvage operations are simultaneously underway to clean up what's left of the iconic bridge.Jeff Peacock, chief of the debris mission for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, has been on the water every day since the disaster."I've done some search and rescue before, but nothing ever on the scale of the bridge collapse," Peacock told 11 News.WBAL-TV 11 News boarded Peacock's debris vessel Thursday to get a closer look at the crucial undertaking. With weather improving, crews will soon work to lift undamaged containers off of the Dali cargo ship to give them space to start clearing the bridge debris currently embedded onto the ship.At such a close range, 11 News saw the mess of crushed containers and steel sticking out of the Dali. After using torches to cut the steel, several cranes -- some of the biggest on the East Coast -- then pick up the twisted steel, piece by piece. On Thursday, that included a 350-ton segment.Video below: New video shows wreckage of Key Bridge collapse from the waterBut there is far more work underneath the surface."The wreckage below is far more convoluted and complex. It's collapsed all the way down. You've got wreckage that is mangled and cantilevered sitting on the bottom and deep into the mud line," Pinchasin told 11 News.Multiple channels are now clear for vessels working on the salvage operation. Currently, crews are clearing a larger path for ships to once again navigate in and out of the Port of Baltimore.At the same time, this is still very much a recovery mission. Six people lost their lives in the disaster. Four construction workers are still missing. Officials said they will not give up until each victim is found and the Key Bridge is rebuilt."When you get out here and see the magnitude of the damage and what happened, it's kind of surreal," Peacock told 11 News.U.S. government's plans to clear collapsed bridge, ship come into focusThe U.S. government's plans for clearing the collapsed bridge and the cargo ship that struck it are coming into focus.The Army Corps of Engineers released a tentative timeline Thursday to reopen the Fort McHenry channel.USACE officials said they expect to open a limited access channel to the Port of Baltimore by the end of April. The channel would support one-way traffic in and out of the port for barge container service and some vessels that move automobiles and farm equipment.Engineers are aiming to reopen the permanent channel by the end of May, restoring port access to normal capacity, according to officials.Federal and state authorities are also ramping up efforts to soften the economic blow to the port city's businesses and residents who work in the maritime industry. At the same time, questions are being raised about the precautions taken to protect the construction workers who died when the bridge collapsed. And, it turns out that a floating crane that's removing debris has ties to a top-secret CIA mission during the Cold War. Here's what we know about the Baltimore bridge collapse as the cleanup gets underway: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a salvage operations plan Wednesday evening that outlines its priorities and objectives for clearing the Patapsco River. Top objectives include stabilizing the Dali container ship and eventually removing the massive vessel. The other goals are analyzing the tangle of wreckage of what was the Francis Scott Key Bridge and removing the debris. In terms of priorities, the Army Corps said recovering the bodies of the construction workers who died is at the top of the list. Weather conditions and the river's murky water have been making the task difficult.Other top priorities include establishing a limited access channel for ships and clearing the bridge debris from the Dali. The second and third-tier priorities are removing the ship and then clearing the remaining wreckage from the river. "The situation remains dynamic, and the plan ... will be continually updated as the engineering data becomes known," the Army Corps said.Video below: Sonar helping to map debris from Key Bridge collapseIsabel Casillas Guzman, the administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, visited Baltimore on Thursday to highlight a low-interest loan program that's available to affected businesses.The program has received 500 applications, Guzman said, and the funds could start being distributed within about two weeks.The loans will help keep companies afloat as Baltimore's vital port remains closed to most maritime traffic. Guzman said businesses involved in transportation and supply chain logistics will likely suffer the most in the short term, but the long-term ripple effects will be widespread.On Wednesday night, the Maryland Senate unanimously approved a bill authorizing the governor to use the state's Rainy Day Fund to help unemployed port employees. The House version of the bill moved through the chamber on Thursday.The legislation also would let the governor use state reserves to help some small businesses avoid layoffs and encourage companies that relocate elsewhere to return to Baltimore once the port reopens.The deaths of the construction workers have raised questions about whether the company they worked for took proper precautions, including keeping a safety boat nearby that might have been able to warn them at least a few seconds before impact.Federal regulations require construction companies to keep such boats, commonly known as skiffs, on hand whenever crews are working over waterways, safety experts told The Associated Press. There is no indication that the Brawner construction company had a rescue boat on the water or ready to be launched as the bridge fell.Coast Guard representatives and other officials said they were unaware of any Brawner boat in the water at the time of the collapse. And satellite images from around the time appeared to show no skiff in the river near the bridge.Even if the workers had been warned that the giant ship was about to hit, it’s unclear if they would have had enough time to scramble to safety.A Brawner representative declined to comment, saying the company is focused on taking care of the families of the workers, who were filling potholes on the bridge when it collapsed. Meanwhile, it turns out that one of the floating cranes clearing debris had a small but significant role during the Cold War. In the early 1970s, the crane barge helped to construct a specialized ship that eventually raised a portion of a sunken Soviet submarine. Specifically, the crane hoisted into the ship heavy machinery that was vital to the CIA's top-secret mission. The equipment included a mechanical claw, tons of steel pipe and a heavy duty hydraulic system. The Soviet submarine was roughly 3 miles below the surface of the Pacific. "It's considered one of the most expensive intelligence operations of all time," said M. Todd Bennett, a history professor at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, who wrote a 2022 book on the mission. "And not only that, it's certainly one of the most inventive or daring intelligence operations in U.S. history."The floating crane is now called the Chesapeake 1000, nicknamed "Chessy," and is one of the largest of its kind on the East Coast.The Associated Press contributed to this report.