The Onondaga Lake Parkway Bridge has earned the title “Undefeated Heavyweight Champion of the World” on social media. Tractor trailers strike the bridge at an increasing rate in recent years, reigniting calls for additional signage and other changes.
Transcript
KARL WINTER: This bridge is becoming as synonymous with the Syracuse area as the Dome and Dinosaur Barbecue. Not only is it a social media favorite, but it even has a title.
TJ GOODMAN: I mean, there’s not many other bridges out there that have a world championship belt. I mean, come on.
WINTER: TJ Goodman is a lifelong Liverpool resident. Goodman started a Facebook page to share news and jokes about the infamous bridge. In late 2022, he and a few friends launched a website and merchandise for what they call the world champion of bridges.
GOODMAN: We decided just to just start our own website, and with all the profits going to Liverpool High School, where most of us attended. And it goes to our scholarship fund for Liverpool High School.
WINTER: Goodman says the site has raised between one and three thousand dollars for Liverpool High in its first four months. The fame of the site’s namesake stems from its unique dimensions.
WINTER: The bridge stands less than 11 feet tall — barely taller than a basketball hoop … shorter than two of me … and significantly shorter than an average tractor trailer.
WINTER: Those tractor trailers have struck the bridge at an increasing rate recently. There were 28 bridge strikes between 2020 and 2022, or an average of nine per year – nine in 20-20, 11 in 2021, and down to eight in 2022. Five trucks have already hit the bridge in 2023 – more than one per month. When Onondaga Lake Parkway opened during the FDR administration, semi trucks simply were not a concern.
BOB SEARING: Cars then just weren’t that big. They didn’t necessarily envision that tractor trailers would grow to the size that they did.
WINTER: Searing says the bridge itself is over 150 years old. It was originally built over the Oswego Canal before the canal was filled in.
SEARING: We’re at the center of what is essentially an international transportation network that stretches all the way obviously to Canada and farther south. So, that railroad bridge is not going anywhere, it is still used.
WINTER: The bridge is undefeated and the railroad itself never sustains any damage – unlike the trucks. The railroad company CSX transportation owns the bridge and would have to cooperate in order to raise it. CSX rarely speaks publicly about the problem, and did not respond to our request for comment. If the bridge is not raised and trucks keep hitting it, people will flood the Twitter mentions of local sports commentator Brent Axe. Axe helped popularize the “heavyweight champion of the world” moniker on social media. But after a double-decker bus struck the bridge in 2010 and four people died, Axe is careful when cracking jokes.
BRENT AXE: So I never tweet or anything until you see or hear driver’s okay. So as long as you know the driver’s okay, then I think it’s game on.
WINTER: What about the signs that warn those truck drivers? Well, there already are plenty … but the state Department of Transportation says they may need to add more. Axe, whose father owned a trucking company in Central New York, says hitting the bridge is inexcusable with the amount of signage.
AXE: And it’s about as clear as can be … if you are a truck driver of any competence, you have to know, you cannot go that way. And yet, it happens all the time.
WINTER: Axe and the DOT say truck drivers may be using non-commercial GPS apps that take them down Onondaga Lake Parkway.
AXE: Amazon’s got so many new drivers coming through Central New York that maybe don’t know, the lore of the bridge, don’t know the rules of the road, if you will, so it keeps happening again.
WINTER: Until something drastic changes, Brent Axe will continue tweeting, TJ Goodman will continue selling shirts, and the Onondaga Lake Parkway Bridge will remain a part of central New York lore.
GOODMAN: It’s just like … it’s our thing.
WINTER: Reporting in Salina, Karl Winter, NCC News.
SALINA, N.Y. (NCC News) — An old local railroad bridge is now featured on t-shirts, beer koozies and countless memes.
Dozens of vehicles have struck the infamous Onondaga Lake Parkway Bridge in its 152 years of existence, leading to its nickname: the Undefeated Heavyweight Champion of the World.
“There’s not many other bridges out there that have a world championship belt,” lifelong Liverpool resident TJ Goodman said.
Goodman started a Facebook page for the bridge which now has 11,000 followers. Recently, he and a group of friends created a website which sells merchandise carrying the bridge’s moniker.
“We decided to just start our own website, and with all the profits going to Liverpool High School where most of us attended,” Goodman said. “And it goes to a scholarship fund for Liverpool High School.”
The gear features images of the bridge, the world championship belt and the sign indicating the bridge’s clearance height: 10’9″
The unusually low clearance has caused increasing numbers of vehicles to strike the bridge in recent years. Five trucks have already hit the bridge in 2023, including a Department of Transportation vehicle. Those numbers are up from the average of nine strikes per year between 2020 and 2022.
In 2010, a double-decker Megabus struck the bridge and four passengers died — pumping the brakes on the endless jokes about the strikes.
“People have gotten hurt there,” local sports commentator Brent Axe said. “So you want to make sure everybody’s okay. But if it’s just yet another person that screwed up, I think it’s fair game.”
Axe, whose father owned a trucking company in Central New York, says the increased use of delivery services and non-commercial GPS in trucks pulling tractor trailers may contribute to the increased strikes.
“Amazon’s got so many new drivers coming through Central New York that maybe don’t know the lore of the bridge, don’t know the rules of the road,” Axe said. “So it keeps happening again.”
Axe popularized the “Undefeated Heavyweight Champion of the World” on his Twitter account to his nearly 30,000 followers, but he says the State Department of Transportation or CSX, the railroad company which owns the bridge, must fix it.
“As much as I would miss tweeting about it and having some fun with it, it’s getting to the point where it’s like — they need to fix that,” Axe said.