Happy Holidays, everyone. I love these chilly winter days of mirth and merriment, where everyone spreads joy and shares gifts. I was reminded this week of a specific video that always brings me happiness this time of year that I want to gift to you. A video of trucks hitting the same low-ass bridge.
I was chatting this week with our old friend and compatriot Patrick George about how random website traffic can sometimes seem. You spend months working on an investigative piece you think will shock the world and it’s inevitably something trivial that takes off.
In particular, Patrick recounted to me of the time when he was deep in a piece on federal drug testing when he decided to post a video at the old lighting site with the inspired headline: I Can’t Stop Watching Trucks Hit This Low-Ass Bridge.
It took off, somewhat unsurprisingly. I can’t remember what the numbers were, but they were high and they made our month (and then some). The bridge in question is a 70-year-old railroad trestle in Durham, North Carolina not too far from Jason.
As documented on the website 11foot8.com, created by someone with a view of the bridge who was smart enough to put up an early webcam to document the mayhem, the bridge was built at a time when trucks weren’t that tall:
This train trestle is about 70 years old. At the time when it was built, there were no standards for minimum clearance.
Between 2008 and 2019, on average, a truck got visibly damaged a little more than once a month at the bridge (150 crashes in 140 months). However, every day I see trucks that trip the overheight warning lights, stop and turn into the side street. So the vast majority of drivers heed the warnings.
There’s something quaint about this. I spent much of yesterday with my family sharing Instagram Reels of people having hilarious accidents as documented by iPhones, Ring cams, and all number of other surveillance devices we’ve blithely added to our lives. But 10 years ago, when this video was released, it wasn’t quite as common to get videos of disasters. Let alone the same disaster happening again and again and again.
Here’s the compilation of accidents from the original height:
The bridge has since been raised to 12′ 4″ and a bunch of signage has been added to make it harder to hit. Yet, somehow, people keep hitting the bridge. Here’s an updated camera of the updated bridge:
Ahhh that’s the good stuff.
One of the main routes to the south side of a town I used to live in had a low bridge and no way to avoid it once a truck took a certain fork. So they’d have to back up several city blocks, try to wedge themselves down streets that haven’t been updated since horses were the primary mode of transportation, or… just have a go and hope they made it.
They never made it.
Low bridges are the best, and 11foot8 is the king of documenting it as far as I’m concerned.
I live in Pensacola, Florida. I often joke that if there were playoffs to name the US Vehicle-Eating Infrastructure champion, the Gulf Coast regional final would pit Mobile, Alabama’s Bankhead Tunnel, clearance 12 feet: https://www.lagniappemobile.com/news/bankhead-tunnel-remains-undefeated/article_6cb83f85-e535-5a63-baa0-07d804fd1d9c.html
…against Pensacola’s own 10’0″ 17th Avenue railroad overpass, better known as The Graffiti Bridge for the ever-changing art painted on it almost daily. This is my favorite one ever: “Graffiti Bridge Truck Conversions – Drive Though Service!” https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0965/3970/products/TGBDriveThroughService010223_400x.jpg?v=1673986380
Both are undefeated. Unfortunately, neither has a YouTube channel.
I get to see so many of my favorite drivers. You get the ones who forgot that the height of their 5th wheel includes their now removed AC units, the ones who think that you can sneak past the bridge by going extra slow, and of course the moving company Two Men and (most of) a Truck.
11foot8.com is a treasure. It never grows old – despite them raising the clearance height a bit. I have a particular enjoyment of RV trailers. A/C, anyone?
We have a local bridge that is similarly infamous, the Glenridge Bridge in Glenville, NY (near Schenectady). Clearance is only 10′-11″!
The thing gets nailed frequently, no matter how many crazy features they add to guide trucks away from it. We’re talking laser-guided warning systems and shit like that.
It actually got hit again about a week ago.
Gosh, I remember one of my biggest traffic hits—a quick piece on a guy who went to crazy lengths to save his BMW from rising floodwaters down in Houston—being put together on a plane coming back from some other trip. A pretty normal news story, but infinitely relatable, I guess. Lo and behold, that became the big chart-topper for a while.
To prove the point, I think I remember that article! Didn’t he put it up on improvised block platforms or something? Maybe get it into the house? A little fuzzy on the details, but it was pretty relatable to me.
He kept stacking blocks under the lift points, using other materials to raise his floor jack off the ground as he went. It was the kind of solution you go with when you know the floor will just destroy the car anyways if you don’t come up with a redneck car lift.
That’s right! I remember now. I’ve done similar-ish things lifting machinery, but I wasn’t going as high.
Yep!
Merry Christmas. This will be the gift that keeps giving for years to come as mall crawler pickups start encroaching on the height limit.
I can just hear it now: “but I have to look like I can tow…”
I’m disappointment the local council hasn’t voted to do a proper upgrade. That webcam should be 4K by now.