The Norfolk Southern–Gregson Street Overpass is commonly known as the 11-foot-8 Bridge and... The Can Opener. But more on that later. This railroad bridge in Durham, North Carolina, was built in 1940 and allows passenger and freight trains to cross over South Gregson Street in downtown Durham and like its first nickname suggests, its clearance for vehicles was 11 feet 8 inches (3.56 m). This was a standard height at the time it opened. But the standard clearance since 1973 has a minimum height of 14 feet (4.27 m).
Despite numerous warning signs yelling just how low the clearance of this bridge was, a large number of trucks, buses, and RVs have collided with the overpass at high speed, tearing off roof fixtures, and at times shearing off the trucks' roofs. That's what earned the bridge its second nickname, The Can Opener. Some people even call it the "Gregson Street Guillotine". In October 2019, the North Carolina Railroad Company, which owns the bridge and tracks, raised the bridge by 8 inches (0.2 m) to 12 feet 4 inches (3.76 m) to reduce collisions.
The bridge gained fame in 2008, when a nearby office worker, Jürgen Henn, set up cameras to track the collisions with the bridge. As of October 2020, Henn has recorded over 150 accidents, and has a YouTube channel to showcase them. His project even expanded to other Internet platforms. Thus, the subreddit r/11foot8 was born.
Eventually, however, the subreddit evolved—it now features vehicles colliding with structures all over the world. Here are some of its top posts.
#1 U Are Stuck
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#2 Meanwhile In Chicago
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#3 I Don’t Understand People. “Oh This Truck Is About To Hit That Sign, Let Me Just Continue Follow Him”
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#4 He Made It All The Way Through The Holland Tunnel
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#5 Vw Crash
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#6 I Too Take The Top Off My Oreos Before I Eat Them
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#7 Thought This Fit Well Here
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#8 Pretty Effective Bridge Protection !
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#9 New Mini Golf In Durham Honors It's Famous 11'8" Bridge
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#10 F
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#11 Bank Overhang
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#12 11foot8 In Indianapolis. Truck Was Full Of Cream Cheese
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#13 Irony?
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#14 Found On Street View
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#15 How To Make Canola Oil Very Quickly
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#16 This Low Overpass Knocked The Streetview Camera Off Its Mount
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#17 Square Peg In A Round Hole
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#18 You See What Happens When You Rush To Be In Somebody Else's Business
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#19 Separation Anxiety
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#20 Delivering A Bridge
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#21 Looks All Clear Now
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#22 Hungry Bridge In Enid, Oklahoma
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#23 Low Clearance
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#24 Gotta Get The Packages Onboard As Quickly As Possible!
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#25 I Work For FedEx. One Of Our Trucks Came In Like This.
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#26 “No Pictures! Don’t Laugh!”
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#27 Parking Garage Mistskes
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#28 What Makes It Funnier Is That This Isn’t Even The Route The Bus Is Meant To Take
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#29 The Biggest Oof I’ve Ever Seen!
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#30 This Happened Today In My City
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#31 Well Known Can Opener In Kansas City, Mo
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#32 Wishaw, Scotland August 17th 2020 (No One Injured)
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#33 Mt Airy Philadelphia Just This Morning
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#34 I Fought The Bridge And The Bridge Won
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#35 Snapped This In Philadelphia A Few Weeks Back. Oops
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#36 When You Take The Bridge With
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#37 He Should Have Turned Left
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#38 8 Ft Is Less Than You Think...
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#39 Y Bridge Overpass In Zanesville, Oh Claims It's Newest Victim. A Tree Service Bucket Truck.
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#40 Swedish Custom Service Crashes Their Portable X-Ray
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#41 I Guess These Guys Weren’t Little Enough
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#42 I85, Spartanburg Sc. Today. All Lanes Blocked
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#43 I Wonder At What Point He Decided Against It...
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#44 "Reliance"
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#45 8'2" (2,5m) In The Netherlands (Hornweg, Aalsmeer) It Has Claimed Around 190 Victims So Far. (According To Locals)
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#46 A Little Compilation Of The Deppenfalle (Idiot Trap) In My City.
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#47 If The Bridge It Is To Low, You Don't Have To Take It Slow. Lay The Truck Down On The Side, Underneath The Bridge You'll Slide
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#48 Another One Bites The Dust
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#49 Just A Bit Too Tight Of A Squeeze In Phillipsburg, Pa
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#50 Does This Fit Here?
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#51 Really Committed To Making It (Bronx)
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#52 Scalped! A Whole Level Beyond Can Opener!
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#53 Brandnew Jeep
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#54 An 11ft 2er Spotted In Indiana
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#55 Happened Today In Sweden. No One Got Injured
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#56 Be Gentle It's My First Time
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#57 Surprised This Doesn’t Happen More Often
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#58 A Slight Miscalculation
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#59 In Our State Capital, We Have An 11'3" Bridge. The Truck In Front Of Me Somehow Thought He Was Shorter Than 11 Feet. It's Impressive How Many Trucks Try.
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#60 Scranton Pa Can Represent Finally. Funnily Enough Our Minor League Baseball Team Are Currently In A Series With Durham’s Team
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#61 Trying To Scrape Off The Top. Uppsala, Sweden
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#62 Found Just Beyond A Low Overpass
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#63 11 Foot 8, Meet 10 Foot 11 In Tucson
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#64 Garbage Truck In Ann Arbor, Michigan Stuck Under Railroad Bridge
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#65 It Happens Here In Michigan Too!
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#66 Strikes Again! Outside My Office
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#67 This Happened A Couple Days Ago Near My Town
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#68 Bus In Rochdale, UK Gets Roof Taken Clean Off, Somehow No-One Died
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