May 8, 2025 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in Durham, North Carolina, there’s a bridge that trucks just can’t stop hitting—“The Can Opener.” Jesse Edwards shares the story behind the internet’s most famous overpass.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
This is our American Stories, and we tell stories of
all sorts.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Here on this show.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And this next one is a story about a bridge
in Durham, North Carolina has captured the world's attention on YouTube,
the eleven foot eight inch high Bridge.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
The eleven foot eight bridge is a railroad trestle in Durham,
North Carolina that people keep running into with their big trucks, buses,
and rbs. Sometimes entire roofs of moving vands are removed,
peeled and rolling back like a ten can. Big rigs
are stuck under the thing, and despite many large warning
(01:12):
signs flashing lights warning drivers who dare to pass under
its eleven foot eight clearance, people just keep running into.
One day, jurg and Hen started recording.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
The bridge is right outside my office. I started working
in that building in two thousand and two, and every
time a truck hits the bridge we kind of noticed
because it's oud usually, and so over the years then
you know, every every few weeks walk out there and
(01:50):
check on the driver and kind of survey the mayhem.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
The trestle is over one hundred years old and at
the time it was built no standards for minimum clearance.
On average, about once a month the truck runs into
the damn thing.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
In two thousand and eight, I was setting up a
home security system and with wire those cameras and decided
that it would be kind of interesting to set up
one of those cameras at the office to start filming
the traffic and maybe catch one or two of these
(02:28):
truck crashes to see what that actually looks like. I've
never actually seen it happen in real life. As it
happened just a couple of weeks after I set up
the camera, I caught the first crash and decided to
put it on YouTube. It became pretty popular right away,
so clearly there was an interest with that kind of footage,
(02:51):
so I certainly kept recording. There was not much overhead really.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
The North Carolina Railroad Company owns the trestle. Lifting it
would cost millions of dollars, so they installed a crash beam.
It reduces the impact of trucks hitting the trestle by
slicing open the vehicle like a forty six Ford cutting
through a deloreate. They call it the can opener. The
road can't be lowered because of sewer lines underneath, and
(03:23):
there are warning signs for three blocks leading up to it.
There's even a sensor that can detect a truck that
won't fit. If your rig is too tall, it'll trigger
a sequence of massive flashing lights that specifically tell the
driver to exit. But still people keep hitting it. Jurgen
(03:43):
has hundreds of videos of people crashing into this thing
and millions of views on YouTube. He even collects parts
of the crash debris and sells it back to his fans.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
I credit my wife for that idea. I mean, I
just clean up a little bit when we go down there,
kind of pick up the pieces. I noticed that they're
kind of cool looking, you know, sometimes they're bent in
spirals or or other interesting shapes. So I started keeping
the more interesting looking pieces in my office. But over
(04:15):
the years, well, one box after another. I eventually paulton
his box home and my wife, honey, let's do something
with these boxes of truck pieces. How about I try
to sell them? And I'm like, sure, honey, you try
(04:38):
to sell them. Well, he had actually he was actually
onto something, and you took some nice pictures, names of
pieces and started out online store. We sell t shirts
and crash art. That was that Moniker was also I
call it crash Art, Luca two is probably not the
(05:01):
word that comes to mind. I'm not about to coop
my day job over this. For sure. I would call
it a self sustaining hobby. Make enough money off the
T shirt sales and crash art, and I have a
Patreon page now too to help sort of sustain the
whole thing. Every couple of years or so, get new
cameras so I can capture good, high quality footage.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Now, for the record, the actual clearance height of the
eleven foot eighth bridge is eleven foot ten point eight,
which technically gives it two point eight inches more than advertised.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
And thanks for that story, Jesse. And people do everything
in this country. They have all kinds of hobbies. Some
people bowl, some people play poker. This guy frash Art,
and as he said it, it's a self sustaining hobby.
And boy, that's better than most most of us up
to pay for our hobbies.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
By the way, you can go to.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
YouTube and there's a video it's somewhere over seven million
views of the ultimate montage of all the crashes that
this gentleman has filmed over the years with his little
homespun rigged camera that he just decided would capture all
the crushes he'd never seen.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Now he gets to see it. Now we all get
to see it.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
And by the way, if you have quirky stories like this, passions,
hobbies or no people who do, send them our way.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I'm trying to run down a guy who has a
toaster museum.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I'd seen an article about it somewhere, and if anybody
knows the wisdom.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Of the crowds is great.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
I'd seen or read this story about a guy who
had collected toasters from the beginning of time and has
turned his home and several others into this ultimate toaster museum.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And that's right toaster tast er.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And he's walking through it and talking about every single
kind of toaster, the one piece of toast toaster, then
the two piece of toast toaster.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
The ones that fold, the one that hold four, and
he was just waxing, poet. I can just imagine what
his wife.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Thinks at that toaster museum is it's tens of thousands
of dollars in time. But if it keeps them off
the streets, well, you know what's the problem. The story
the eleven foot eight inch bridge, actually the eleven foot
ten inch Bridge here on Our American Stories. This is
(07:30):
Lee Hbib, host of Our American Stories. Every day on
this show, we tell stories of history, faith, business, love, loss,
and your stories. Send us your story, small or large
to our email oas at Ouramerican Stories dot com. That's
oas at Ouramericanstories dot com. We'd love to hear them
(07:51):
and put them on the air. Our audience loves them too,
This is our American Stories, and we tell stories of
all sorts.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Here on this show.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And this next one is a story about a bridge
in Durham, North Carolina has captured the world's attention on YouTube,
the eleven foot eight inch high Bridge.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
The eleven foot eight bridge is a railroad trestle in Durham,
North Carolina that people keep running into with their big trucks, buses,
and rbs. Sometimes entire roofs of moving vands are removed,
peeled and rolling back like a ten can. Big rigs
are stuck under the thing, and despite many large warning
(01:12):
signs flashing lights warning drivers who dare to pass under
its eleven foot eight clearance, people just keep running into.
One day, jurg and Hen started recording.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
The bridge is right outside my office. I started working
in that building in two thousand and two, and every
time a truck hits the bridge we kind of noticed
because it's oud usually, and so over the years then
you know, every every few weeks walk out there and
(01:50):
check on the driver and kind of survey the mayhem.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
The trestle is over one hundred years old and at
the time it was built no standards for minimum clearance.
On average, about once a month the truck runs into
the damn thing.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
In two thousand and eight, I was setting up a
home security system and with wire those cameras and decided
that it would be kind of interesting to set up
one of those cameras at the office to start filming
the traffic and maybe catch one or two of these
(02:28):
truck crashes to see what that actually looks like. I've
never actually seen it happen in real life. As it
happened just a couple of weeks after I set up
the camera, I caught the first crash and decided to
put it on YouTube. It became pretty popular right away,
so clearly there was an interest with that kind of footage,
(02:51):
so I certainly kept recording. There was not much overhead really.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
The North Carolina Railroad Company owns the trestle. Lifting it
would cost millions of dollars, so they installed a crash beam.
It reduces the impact of trucks hitting the trestle by
slicing open the vehicle like a forty six Ford cutting
through a deloreate. They call it the can opener. The
road can't be lowered because of sewer lines underneath, and
(03:23):
there are warning signs for three blocks leading up to it.
There's even a sensor that can detect a truck that
won't fit. If your rig is too tall, it'll trigger
a sequence of massive flashing lights that specifically tell the
driver to exit. But still people keep hitting it. Jurgen
(03:43):
has hundreds of videos of people crashing into this thing
and millions of views on YouTube. He even collects parts
of the crash debris and sells it back to his fans.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
I credit my wife for that idea. I mean, I
just clean up a little bit when we go down there,
kind of pick up the pieces. I noticed that they're
kind of cool looking, you know, sometimes they're bent in
spirals or or other interesting shapes. So I started keeping
the more interesting looking pieces in my office. But over
(04:15):
the years, well, one box after another. I eventually paulton
his box home and my wife, honey, let's do something
with these boxes of truck pieces. How about I try
to sell them? And I'm like, sure, honey, you try
(04:38):
to sell them. Well, he had actually he was actually
onto something, and you took some nice pictures, names of
pieces and started out online store. We sell t shirts
and crash art. That was that Moniker was also I
call it crash Art, Luca two is probably not the
(05:01):
word that comes to mind. I'm not about to coop
my day job over this. For sure. I would call
it a self sustaining hobby. Make enough money off the
T shirt sales and crash art, and I have a
Patreon page now too to help sort of sustain the
whole thing. Every couple of years or so, get new
cameras so I can capture good, high quality footage.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Now, for the record, the actual clearance height of the
eleven foot eighth bridge is eleven foot ten point eight,
which technically gives it two point eight inches more than advertised.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
And thanks for that story, Jesse. And people do everything
in this country. They have all kinds of hobbies. Some
people bowl, some people play poker. This guy frash Art,
and as he said it, it's a self sustaining hobby.
And boy, that's better than most most of us up
to pay for our hobbies.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
By the way, you can go to.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
YouTube and there's a video it's somewhere over seven million
views of the ultimate montage of all the crashes that
this gentleman has filmed over the years with his little
homespun rigged camera that he just decided would capture all
the crushes he'd never seen.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Now he gets to see it. Now we all get
to see it.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
And by the way, if you have quirky stories like this, passions,
hobbies or no people who do, send them our way.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I'm trying to run down a guy who has a
toaster museum.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I'd seen an article about it somewhere, and if anybody
knows the wisdom.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Of the crowds is great.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
I'd seen or read this story about a guy who
had collected toasters from the beginning of time and has
turned his home and several others into this ultimate toaster museum.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And that's right toaster tast er.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And he's walking through it and talking about every single
kind of toaster, the one piece of toast toaster, then
the two piece of toast toaster.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
The ones that fold, the one that hold four, and
he was just waxing, poet. I can just imagine what
his wife.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Thinks at that toaster museum is it's tens of thousands
of dollars in time. But if it keeps them off
the streets, well, you know what's the problem. The story
the eleven foot eight inch bridge, actually the eleven foot
ten inch Bridge here on Our American Stories. This is
(07:30):
Lee Hbib, host of Our American Stories. Every day on
this show, we tell stories of history, faith, business, love, loss,
and your stories. Send us your story, small or large
to our email oas at Ouramerican Stories dot com. That's
oas at Ouramericanstories dot com. We'd love to hear them
(07:51):
and put them on the air. Our audience loves them too,
Host
Lee Habeeb
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