page_title: Norfolk Southern–Gregson Street Overpass
section_title: Official actions
hierarchical_section_title: Norfolk Southern–Gregson Street Overpass / Official actions
caption_attribution_description: English: The famous Gregson Street Guillotine. Built in 1940, the Norfolk Southern-Gregson Street Overpass is located at the Gregson and Peabody intersection, in downtown Durham, North Carolina; it is famous for being constantly being hit by trucks who ignore the numerous height warnings.
context_page_description: The Norfolk Southern–Gregson Street Overpass is a railroad bridge in Durham, North Carolina, United States, which was built in 1940. The 80-year-old bridge allows passenger and freight trains to cross over South Gregson Street in downtown Durham. It was designed in the 1920s, and opened in 1940, with a clearance for vehicles of 11 feet 8 inches. This was a standard height at the time it opened. The standard clearance, since 1973, has a minimum height of 14 feet, which is 2 feet 4 inches higher than the bridge as built.
  Despite numerous warning signs about the low clearance, 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, earning the bridge the nickname "the Can Opener."
  The bridge gained fame as a nearby office worker, Jürgen Henn, set up cameras in 2008 to track the collisions with the bridge. From April 2008 to October 2019, Henn recorded over 145 collisions with the bridge, which he shared on YouTube and which became popular. Despite the number of crashes, there have been only three injuries reported, making rebuilding of the bridge a low-priority concern.
context_section_description: The state of North Carolina owns the North Carolina Railroad Company, which owns the land and the bridge. North Carolina Railroad owns no rolling stock, but leases tracks to Amtrak and Norfolk Southern Railway. A heavy steel crash beam protects the bridge from over-height trucks but does nothing to prevent crashes or protect the trucks, acting to create a "can opener effect" equivalent to the opening of a sardine can where the top of the over-height truck is peeled back from its frame. The crash beam has been hit so often that it had to be replaced at least once.
  The Transportation Department of the City of Durham maintains Gregson Street, which runs under the bridge. The city installed height detectors on Gregson a block before the bridge. When an over-height truck passes by the detector, yellow warning lights flash to alert the drivers of trucks that will not clear the low underpass. However, many drivers fail to heed the warnings and crash into the bridge.
  The problem is complicated by the location of Peabody Street, which runs parallel to the tracks, and intersects Gregson, just before the bridge. Not all trucks traveling on Gregson will continue under the bridge. Some large trucks must turn right onto Peabody to make their deliveries. Over-height trucks are allowed on Gregson, as long as they turn just before the bridge.
caption: A view from under the bridge, facing traffic. Just below the bridge is a wide-flange steel H-beam to protect it from over-height trucks. The beam's web is horizontal to better absorb the shear force of truck collisions. The vertical flanges spread the impact.
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