Emily & Crybaby Bridge:
Ghostlygraves Post:
Re-printed with permission from author:
I just read your post "Emily's Bridge". It reminds me of a place not far from where I used to live in Ohio. It was called Crybaby Bridge. I've heard enough similar stories from other area to pretty much discount it as an urban legend, but it was well known around the area. Basically, according to the story, a teenage girl had become pregnant. Afterwards, her boyfriend refused to have anything to do with her, not wanting to be a father, and her parents threatened to throw her out of the house if she had the baby. Not believing them, she carried the child to term and gave birth. According to the story, the girl's father threw her out on the street because of it. No knowing what else to do, and desperate to go home, the girl went to the bridge and threw the infant over the side, letting it drown in the shallow stream below. Every since, it's said, that the sounds of a baby wailing can be heard there at night. I'd talked to people who claim to have heard it, but it always came across as they were just saying it to add to the story. Know what I mean? That whole area was rife with such tales.
Scott
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*Story
( Paranormal Investigators have 'flocked' to this area many times, obtaining pictures with orbs, and a 'feeling of uneasiness,' but many still hold this story is just an urban legend. )
Emily's Bridge: Vermont's Haunted Covered Bridge
This bridge, built in 1844 by John W. Smith, is known formally as Gold Brook Bridge or Stowe Hollow Bridge. But to the locals, this one lane bridge will always be known as Emily's Bridge.
According to Joseph Citro, "no one has been able to prove that Emily actually lived. Or died. While most stories say that Emily died by her own hand, all agree her tragedy occurred on the bridge around 1849."
"The best known tale is that Emily was a young Stowe woman who fell for a man who didn't pass muster with her family. Forbidden to marry, the love-struck couple decided to elope. They planned to meet on the bridge at night. The appointed hour came and went, but the young man never showed up. Shattered, Emily hanged herself from a rafter. And her desperate, angry ghost has haunted the bridge ever since, waiting for her lover to return."
Source: Joseph A. Citro,Green Mountain Ghosts, Ghouls and Unsolved Mysteries, Montpelier, VT, 1996.
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Crybaby Bridge:
*Note!
Has so many versions to this story it's amazing! Also known as; 'Bloody Bridge,' 'The woman that screams and screams,' and about a dozen other titles. Story varies from a woman intoxicated who drives off a bridge, her baby dying, to a woman who threw her child off the bridge and you can still hear it's little ghost crying today. If you know a version of this story, please send to webmaster and it will be credited and posted on this page - Thank you!
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Comment:
- There are at least 6 alone in Oklahoma, and another 5 in Georgia and Alabama... it can't be true anywhere... maybe just once.
Carter, David IC2 (NSANAP N2)
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News Article:
New bridge set to replace site of ghost legend
2003-02-24
By Mac Bentley
The Oklahoman
SCHULTER -- Oklahoma soon will lose another bridge to its past.
A one-lane, 75-year-old truss bridge spanning Montezuma Creek two miles west of Schulter is scheduled for demolition this spring. It will be replaced by a two-lane, modern structure built to federal standards with mostly federal money.
Neither history nor folklore of the old wooden-deck bridge saved it. The bridge has to go, no doubt, but efforts were made at state and local levels to find a buyer who would move it to a more suitable location.
That was six years ago. Six months ago, Okmulgee County Commissioner James Connors was informed money was available for a new bridge, and he has been in a use-it-or-lose-it race with an April 1 deadline.
"When money comes down, you've got to take advantage of it," Connors said.
This bridge that serves a dirt and gravel road running between Schulter and the community of Wilson is Crybaby Bridge. Crybaby bridges are the stuff of urban legends. They're found throughout Oklahoma, with varying stories of tragedy followed by the usual hauntings.
Checotah, Hontubby, Jenks, Kellyville, Moore and Pryor each have their own versions. Usually it's told a mother and baby died at a bridge, or a mother killed her baby at a bridge, and you can still hear the baby crying at night.
The legends may have evolved from fact.
Schulter Mayor David Dykes Sr., who says he is almost as old as the bridge, has heard all his life of a woman who missed a sharp turn leading to the west end of Crybaby Bridge and her car plunged into the creek. Her body was found, but her baby's body was not. Dykes said it reportedly happened soon after the bridge was built in 1928.
The stories say you can still hear the baby at night, particularly around midnight. Or that you can hear the woman looking for her baby. Dykes has his own theory.
"I've heard people saying, 'Oh yeah, I've been over there and heard that baby crying,' " he said. "But there's a valley that comes down through there, with a lot of willow trees, and at times there will be a good breeze coming off the prairie on the east side. You can hear that wind going through the willow trees.
"I may be a killjoy, but that's what I feel is happening."
Schulter is on U.S. 75, midway between Okmulgee and Henryetta. The city limits cover just two or three square miles and embrace a population of about 600.
It once was a thriving coal- mining and farming town, Dykes said, but that was back when Crybaby Bridge was a youngster itself. Just when the sorrowful name was first given to the bridge is not known.
"That's how it's known all over the area," said Ray Terrill, a rural water district operator who has known the bridge for most of his 61 years.
The new bridge probably will cost about $660,000, Connors said. That includes taking out the sharp turn on the west side of the bridge. The bridge, 70 feet long and 161/2 feet wide, was built by J.B. Klein Iron & Foundry Co. of Oklahoma City. Founded in 1907, the company was acquired by R.W. Robberson and operated under the Robberson name until shutting down in 1988.
The bridge is one of the few remaining truss bridges Klein built, said John Hartley, manager of environmental studies for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.
"It's a tangible reminder of technology and a means of transportation and construction that aren't around anymore," Hartley said.
"It might be there another week, it might be there a month, it might be there another 10 years," Connors said of the bridge's health. "It has metal columns poured full of concrete, and they didn't have a lot of rebar in them."
Connors said about 200 vehicles cross the bridge daily, and that number would increase significantly if he can get the road hard-surfaced.
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11/6/04:
In Mahoning County it is said a women suffocated her baby because it wouldn't stop crying then she through it over the bridge on Halloween it is said u can hear the baby cry and your car will stall if u cross at midnight.
4 of my relatives claim they heard the baby crying when they crossed on midnight of Halloween the bridge is also located near a Jewish cemetery that is said a girl got her head chopped off by a ghost.
- Anonymous
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11/10/04:
Well, I heard from a friend of a friend that she heard from like her grandma that there was a girl who was a teenager. The teenager went to a party of some sort with her 2 guy friends. That night, the teenager,and her friends got drunk. The teenager mated with one of her friends on accident because of the drinks. When she woke up,and found herself naked with her friend, she knew that she was pregnant, and she didn't know what to do. She went home all ruined,and her parents asked her where she was, and why she looked so bad, and the girl replied that she was at her friends house, staying up till 3:00 a.m., and never going back to sleep. The girl didn't know if she was actually pregnant, so she waited like about 3 months to see if her stomach was getting big,and it was. She was so scared to tell her parents, because she knew that they would get furious at her that they would beat her, and the baby. Her parents were so strict, and very violent, and they would even kill their animals if they made an accident on the floor.Well, about a couple months later, it was almost time for the baby to be delivered, and her stomach was pretty big. The girl went to her friend that mated with her, and he said he didn't recall mating with her on that night, and the girl was yelling at him, so he shut the door. The girl didn't know what to do. So, the girl gave up, and went, and told her parents, her parents got so mad, that they hit her in the face so hard that she started to bleed, she grabbed a knife,and ran out of the house, and ran to a bridge far away. When she got there, she walked back, and forth, then all of a sudden her water broke, and she had a baby right there. When it came out, the girl had didn't know what to do. So, when the baby was still crying, the girl took out her knife, and cut off the baby's arms, and legs, and the baby was still crying. While the baby was still crying, she threw it over the bridge. She too cut her neck, and fell off the bridge. Their bodies were never found. THE END
-Anonymous
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4/12/05
Dear People,
The story I have heard was that Emily was waiting on the bridge and she saw her boyfriend drive buy with another women so she got so upset that she hung her self on the bridge. Many people have come to the police saying the have seen something on the bridge when they cross some sort a light, thinking "What will happen to me?" Wondering, and worrying, scared to DEATH!!!! Also other stories have been said that people have taken pictures of the glowing ball but when the film is developed nothing there. BEWARE OF EMILY'S BRIDGE AND BE CAREFUL WHO YOU GO WITH!!!!!!
From Anita Amell
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cry baby bridge
Urban Legend
8/29/06
OK I am sure that almost every body has herd about cry baby bridge
well f u haven't then I suggest u listen well me and my friend were
fooling around about so called cry baby bridge so we decided to look
it up and it said some weird creepy stuff so me and my friend decided
to get my mom to take us to cry baby bridge we got it was Friday the
13 we were just messing around it was midnight so we did what the info
told us to do turn off ur car get out of it but baby powder in a
circle but a star in the middle then wait for ten min try and turn on
ur car if it does not turn on better hurry or the horse man will come
down the bridge to ur car and kill u if the car turns on then look at
the powder it should have 2 foot prints of a baby in the middle of it.
ali
Englewood Ohio
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October 15, 2006
I have a different version of the story this is one I have experienced first hand NO lie here it is:
Legend has it that there is a bridge called baby's bridge They say that around the time of the civil war a woman and her baby were standing on a bridge when suddenly a cannon blew up the bridge killing the woman and her baby. they rebuilt the bridge and now there is a church near it they say that if you drive around the church 3 times and then drive to the middle of the bridge and park your car and put your keys either on the hood of your car or on you dash and say "where's my baby" 3 times then she will appear and say "WHERE'S MY BABY!!!!!!" and I did that and I didn't see her but I waited five minutes and finally just turned on the radio and a song called where's my baby came on it was SO scary well some people say that you have to drive around the church 3 time and park in the middle of the bridge and say "I've got your baby" 3 times then she will appear and start screaming "GIVE ME MY BABY!" and she will chase you down for 3 miles that's the version I've always heard well believe what you want but its true!!!!!!!!!!!
Michele B.
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10/29/06
A couple of months ago me and my cousin were out walking one night at her new house that she just moved into. she told me that one of her neighbors had said something about "cry baby bridge" so we decided to go check it out. well our version of the story is that if you sprinkle the bridge with baby powder, and lay a bar of chocolate on it, the little baby will come and take the chocolate and ask where its mommy is.
so we got the baby powder and a HERSHEY'S bar and we went out to the bridge. maybe five minutes after we laid that chocolate down, we started to hear a baby crying in the distance. so THAT'S when we started to get freaked out. then this little toddler maybe one year old or so, came up out of NOWHERE and ate the chocolate, then asked us where its mommy was. well me and my cousin started crying and we looked back at where the baby was, and it was gone.
To this DAY we don't go back to cry baby bridge cause the legend is real. as real as can be....
Emily
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Emily's Bridge
Urban Legend
3/24/07
My sister in law and I were talking about Emily a couple months ago, and she told me that last year, a group of kids from her high school went out to her bridge on night to take pictures. Well, they went our there and took their pictures and nothing really happened. Until the film was developed. In one picture, a guy is standing on the bridge (he's a real human,not a ghost) and around his neck appears to be a noose. I don't think they've been back since.
Inga
Barre, VT
Emily's Bridge
Ghost Story
I don't know if the legends to Emily's bridge are true or not, but something are unreal there. My friends and I decided to have a road trip to Emily's Bridge just because we like hunting ghosts and paranormal things. We took along our cell phones and a video camera. When we went on the bridge, I started to feel depressed and slightly aggravated. When my friend Steven went on, a welt appeared on his right side cheek. We took pictures of that and the bridge. I told them we should sit in a circle on the bridge and quiet down. footsteps were heard around us and a slight pushing effect to our backs. Of course we walked off the bridge together and Tony went on by himself. When he was in the middle, he screamed profusely and ran to the other side screaming and cursing that he wouldn't walk back to our side. Steven and I had to drag him back to our side. When we were left Emily's Bridge (went out of it) and came home, on both sides of the car was long 5 scratches that I could even make with a key! I think we're gonna go back and have a bit more fun with the investigation.
Bobbie Morris
Rutland, Vermont
cry baby bridge
11/09/07
One night me my 2 cousins 2 brothers and dad went to cry baby bridge!!!!!! we saw a witches house and step on the property nothing was left but a chimney when we stepped on it we saw either a white elk or a ghost woman with a knife in her hand coming after us we heard the baby cry and, and when that thing came at us my 18 year old cousin started crying and my dad almost did too.my younger cousin wants to go she just a few months younger than I cause she says she likes scary stuff every time she stays the night she asks to go down there!!!!!! my family and cousin both live in Moore, Oklahoma not that far from where there was a supposedly another cry baby bridge but we played on that bridge and under never to hear a thing is a pleasant little park with that bridge that's still there!!!!
Anonymous
