UPDATE (4/19/19): Hmmm. Something funny is going on here…
Earlier this month we hipped you to Bay View Missed Connections, a new Facebook group dedicated to “choice anecdotes of localized lust.” Today, in our continued (and probably futile) effort to make social media a little less awful, we bring you a Facebook page for the “KK Can Opener,” a.k.a. that South Kinnickinnic Avenue railroad bridge that loves to eat unsuspecting semis.
You know the bridge. The one that kind of separates Walker’s Point from Bay View? The one that always seems to have a semi stuck underneath it? Yeah, that one. Here’s a TMJ4 report from last summer, featuring footage of two—two!—semis that fell prey to the “KK Can Opener” in less than a week:
(Best/most accurate quote: “When I seen the police up there I automatically knew what happened.”)
And here’s vintage footage (recorded from that nearby gas station) of another semi getting stuck/crushed under the bridge:
Indeed, the “KK Can Opener” page details many more bridge/semi run-ins. The time the bridge trapped/wrecked a potato truck. The time it trapped/wrecked a produce truck. And so on. “I am a humble section of railroad bridge that LOVES to eat trucks,” says the page, which is kind of understating it.
So what’s going on here? Is the bridge improperly marked? No, says Bay View Alderman Tony Zielinski in the 2018 TMJ4 report:
“As you can see there’s a sign posted right there the height of the bridge. There’s a sign on Maple letting people know the height of the bridge and even though the sign says 12 feet 9 inches it’s actually higher than that. We give an extra leeway just in case,” said Zielinski.
So, um, just read the sign? Oh, and feel free to argue about whether the bridge is in Walker’s Point or Bay View in the comments below. And enjoy this unrelated 2014 clip of a semi taking down the marquee at The Rave. [h/t Brianna Griepentrog]