Trucks Facts

A chain-reaction crash on the Clark Memorial Bridge in Louisville sent a semi-truck dangling nearly 100 feet over the Ohio River with the driver trapped inside. Firefighter Bryce Carden, 29, was lowered by rope over the bridge edge, cut her free, harnessed her, and both were hoisted to safety. The whole rescue took 40 minutes.

A converted oil tanker left Port Newark in 1956 with 58 steel boxes on its deck. The man behind it ran trucks, not ships. Malcom McLean bought a steamship line so cranes could lift his loaded trailers aboard. In 1963 his company gave the box corner patents away, royalty free, so rivals could copy them. Every container lifted onto a ship today still locks into those corners.

Bigfoot is widely called the first monster truck, and it began as Bob Chandler's 1974 Ford F-250. He kept breaking it off road, and local shops did not stock the parts, so he opened a 4x4 shop. In 1981 he drove it over junk cars in a field and filmed the run, and in 1983 more than 68,000 fans packed the Pontiac Silverdome to watch Bigfoot. Bigfoot trucks still tour arenas today.