The North Carolina Bridge That Decapitates Cars Is Finally Being Raised

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it’s the end of an era in Durham, North Carolina.

The city’s transportation department has announced plans to raise the train trestle at 201 Gregson Street.

That sounds common enough, right? Except that this may be the internet’s favorite low-hanging bridge, the 11 Foot 8 Bridge, also sometimes called the Can Opener or the Gregson Street Guillotine.

The bridge is just a bit too low to accommodate many of the rental trucks and other vehicles that pass underneath.

And because not everyone checks to see whether they have enough clearance, a lot of trucks have lost their tops on their way through.

The owner of the website 11foot8.com, Jurgen Henn, has seen so many crashes that he set up cameras to document them.

This is why the bridge is internet-famous.

The railroad that owns the trestle put in a crash beam to bear the brunt of the impact, and the city has put in plenty of sensors and warning signs to warn drivers they’re too tall to pass through, to no avail.

So they’re going to raise the trestle, which for safety’s sake is probably wise.

But some fans of the infamous spot are having a hard time saying goodbye.

One user on Twitter responded to the city’s announcement with the following statement: “nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo”

When people get artistic with their drones, that usually means they use the craft to hover high above and take some dramatic video.

Artist Reuben Wu is trying something different. He’s having drones fly in the patterns of geometric shapes while carrying lights.

With long exposure photography he turns the lingering glow into what he calls “aeroglyphs,” essentially light paintings in the sky.

Which would be fun to see around the 11 Foot 8 Bridge.

Famously Low ’11-Foot-8′ Bridge Will Be Raised by Eight Inches to Stop the Carnage (The Drive)

11foot8.com

Aeroglyphs by Reuben Wu

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Photo by Mark Clifton via Flickr/Creative Commons

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Brady Carlson
Brady Carlson
Brady Carlson is a writer and radio host from Madison, Wisconsin. more