It's notoriously low. "Vertically challenged," according to the fan account on Twitter tracking the fate of trucks, buses and vans who dare to ignore the 26 warning signs (yes, really).
And yet it's not enough to deter drivers from plowing into the structure every few months, and a couple of weeks ago, twice in four days.
It was a particularly disastrous week, with a concrete truck and a camper van crumpled by the South Melbourne icon, with the Twitter account declaring the 108-year-old bridge the "heavyweight champion". In the same tweet, the concrete churner was also told to “harden up".
Cement mixer collides with Montague St Bridge on 11 May, 2022.
It’s not just a Twitter account keeping track of the crashes on Montague Street Bridge. There’s a website ('howmanydayssincemontaguestreetbridgehasbeenhit.com') and plenty of videos on YouTube for punters wanting to see a near miss or epic fail.
In 2016, the Victorian government announced it would add a second gantry (overhead structure) with rubber paddles to warn drivers they won't fit under the bridge if their vehicle hits the paddles, but alas, the bridge still hasn't made it through a full year without being driven into.
"It is fearless. It is formidable. It's seen over 100 battles since 2011. It remains undefeated," Victorian Premier Dan Andrews said on a Facebook post documenting the gantry installation.
"Make no mistake: the Montague Street Bridge is pure evil. We surrender."
A screenshot from the site 'How many days since Montague Street has been hit?' Credit: howmanydayssincemontaguestreetbridgehasbeenhit.com
Since the website started keeping track in February 2016, there's been upward of 150 incidents.
Montague Street Bridge's long history of collisions
It's been there for a long time. Since 1914, when it started life as a railway bridge. It has been a problem child for about the same time too.
Newspaper extracts from 1916 show the street was prone to flooding, making it difficult for pedestrians. In 1934, the South Melbourne council decided to raise the street level by about two feet making the 3-metre-high passage we know today.
By 1987 the bridge's traffic switched from trains to trams, but the prevalence of collisions remained persistent.
A caller on an ABC radio program in 2016 shared that they had witnessed a collision in 1929 when they were just seven years old.
One of the more serious encounters with the bridge happened in 2016 and saw the roof of a 3.6-metre tall bus peeled back to the fifth row of passenger seats.
A bus collided with Montague Street Bridge in February 2016, injuring passengers and the driver.
The driver's convictions were later overturned.
After the crash, VicRoads said it would investigate the cost of lowering Montague Street.
But flooding (still an issue) and the big feat of moving other utilities around like gas, electricity and water saw VicRoads put it in the too hard (and too expensive) basket.
There's also a reluctance to lift the bridge as a busy tram line still runs over it.
"Raise the bridge," some continue to say on social media. "Raise the IQ of the drivers," reply some others.
It's a love-hate relationship.
Bridge vs vehicle videos are quite popular, apparently
It's not the only bridge to inspire such fanfare. Napier Street Bridge in Melbourne, which has a clearance of four metres, similarly attracts attention and collisions.
In North Carolina in the US, one bridge that spurred the website '11foot8.com' has posted crash videos since 2009.
The videos often have upward of a million views and have documented over 100 crashes - though there a likely more.
Jürgen Henn, who worked just outside the bridge for years according to the website, has amassed 248,000 subscribers for the content.
Finally, after many crashes, the overpass nicknamed "The Can-Opener," was raised by 8 inches, or 20 centimetres, in 2019. The bridge's clearance went from 3.56 metres to 3.76 metres.
But even with the growth spurt, the accidents - and videos - continue.
