[8] As early as the 1960s, several low bridges in Durham were an impediment to the area's industry as larger trucks began supplementing rail haulage.

The bridge on Gregson Street in particular was deemed "the granddaddy stopper-of-them-all", having experienced at least seven collisions from trucks, which incurred $20,000 ($160,000 in 2021) worth of damage, in 1968.

[8] As years passed, this option would eventually become impractical, as it would require moving sewer lines and water pipes below the road surface, which would come at a high cost and cause important utilities to be shut down for weeks to months.

North Carolina Railroad owns no rolling stock, but leases tracks to Amtrak and Norfolk Southern Railway.

[citation needed] In May 2016, the city attempted to solve the problem by installing a traffic signal at the intersection, and removing the yellow warning beacons.

[10][11] Trucks have continued to hit the bridge, possibly because the local buses fit underneath, despite the sensors displaying the overheight message.

[13][14] In October 2019, the North Carolina Railroad Company began work to raise the bridge by 8 inches (0.20 m) as part of a $500,000 project to improve safety and reduce damage to the span.

[15][6] The new height is still far lower than the typical bridge clearance, so the system of warning signals and the guard barrier remained in place.

[16] Jürgen Henn, who works in a nearby office, mounted several video cameras to record the crashes from different angles.

[20] The bridge is only one of several under-height bridges in the area that trucks frequently crash into;[13] however, the videos became popular, and brought this particular bridge to international media attention, including front-page coverage in The Wall Street Journal,[20][18] on an episode of the Comedy Central television show Tosh.0,[citation needed] on an episode of the CBC Radio radio program As It Happens in Canada,[21] on the Portuguese language Brazilian TerraTV,[22] on Stuff in New Zealand,[23] in the Hebrew language Israeli newspaper Maariv,[24] in the Spanish language Peruvian newspaper El Comercio,[25] on the Irish iRadio,[26] in the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet,[27] on news.com.au in Australia,[28] on the Italian language radio station Rai Radio 2,[29] on the French television news channel La Chaîne Info,[30] and on a video by YouTuber videogamedunkey.