A Big Penny for your trucks

Big Penny, a 12-foot-tall railroad bridge overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue just north of the Red Cedar River, has been terrorizing truckers since 1928 by peeling back the tops of their trailers like a can opener.

Big Penny has been around longer than all but perhaps a few Lansing elders. However, in a rise reminiscent of popstar Chappell Roan’s, her legacy didn’t become a social media hit until this summer.

It began in late July, when an anonymous collective of contagiously positive public art vigilantes called Stupid Lansing decided to put a face to the name. Equipped with reflective gear and hard hats, members hiked to the top of the bridge and used industrial adhesive to fix googly eyes and Styrofoam fangs to the bridge just in time for her 96th birthday.

Within 24 hours, Big Penny celebrated the occasion by claiming her 16th truck of the year and 69th victim since 2004, according to a Stupid Lansing organizer who gathered the data from the website Michigan Traffic Crash Facts. Since then, Big Penny’s insatiable appetite has taken four more trucks, bringing her total to 20 this year.

The organizer, who described Big Penny as “the toughest damn bridge in all the land,” spoke to City Pulse on the condition that their name would remain anonymous.

The Lansing Lugnuts' tribute to Big Penny.

Stupid Lansing tracks Big Penny’s meals on its Facebook page, which has more than 4,500 followers. The effort has helped Big Penny emerge as a regional mascot of sorts. So much so, in fact, that the city of Lansing itself wished her a happy birthday through its social media channels, while the Lugnuts paid tribute to her in a video mashup during a recent game.

“Much like Big Penny, Lansing isn’t perfect. But we are tough as hell, show up every day, don’t give up and do the damn thing with a big ol’ toothy grin,” the organizer said.

The group has dabbled in other public art displays as well. In early August, members installed a floating shark fin at Crego Park. Days later, it mysteriously disappeared.

A Stupid Lansing news mockup about the Crego Park shark fin.

“Many are concerned that the shark broke free of the confines of Crego Park and is likely on the loose in Greater Lansing,” the organizer said.

More recently, Stupid Lansing erected three metal displays in Old Town, affixed with hundreds of magnetic words. Pedestrians were invited to compose messages for more than a week, but because the magnets weren’t waterproof, the group took the display down on Aug. 28. They’ve begun scouting out potential indoor locations to reinstall it in a more permanent capacity in the future.

The "Letters from Lansing" display in Old Town.

The team has no intention of going public with their identities, the organizer told City Pulse, because they want their hijinks “to belong to Lansing and not be attached to any one person or group.”

“Our sole mission is to make Lansing smile, to bring a little humor into everyone’s day and to try and make the world a little happier,” the organizer said. “We occasionally get messages from people telling us that our efforts made them smile, that something we did was a bright spot in their day. Moments like that are the fuel that keeps us going.”