Pleasant Hill Road Bridge, as it is known to locals in Etowah county, Alabama, has been cut in half and moved to another location. And some are asking if the paranormal entities attached to it will move with the bridge, haunt the newly created one where it once stood, or disappear entirely forever.
After the bridge became too costly for local governments to repair and rehabilitate, it was finally decided that it needed to be moved. “I’m glad we made the move,” one local woman said, “The thing was too expensive, I didn’t feel comfortable driving on it, and it was haunted anyway on top of all that.” To take apart the bridge required several workmen and two trips as it was taken to Black Creek Trails where it now rests in piece at the beginning of the trail. A vote will soon be held to see if funding can be acquired to move it to a museum location in Attalla. Originally planners had hoped to make the bridge useful, spanning a treacherous ravine, but once again the issue of funding arose and the bridge was left on the trail and is unused as of yet.
The bridge got its paranormal reputation when locals suggested that while driving over it you could actually hear voices on it. It has also been labeled as a “crybaby bridge,” which is a bridge where a tragedy occurred that results in a helpful type of paranormal entity. Its said if you park at the edge of the bridge, and put your car in neutral that the spirits haunting the bridge will push you across to the other side. Checking through the historical records of the town, however, it’s difficult to pinpoint when the bridge was attached to any major tragedy that would have left it haunted. Still, many locals swear by the metaphysical nature of the bridge.
Historical records indicate the bridge was originally built in Walnut Grove before being moved to its resting place of the past fifty years in Pleasant Hill Road where it was reassembled, refurbished, and put back into use. It got quite a bit of use on Pleasant Hill Road on the way to Lookout Mountain over the next several years. It was also considered a historical landmark, which spared its destruction and transformation into a pile of iron salvage.
What is it about bridges that seems to make them even more haunted than the typical location? Some say it’s the fact that energy is compressed at these locations, and others like them. Crossroads, stairs, doorways, bridges, and elevators all have a high propensity for unexplained phenomena, particularly with a focus on ghosts. Also, a bridge is a potentially dangerous place where many people feel ill at ease. In the darkness of night staring over the edge of a bridge into the obsidian illusion of an abyss is enough to send a chill up the spine, possibly making some more susceptible to seeing things from the other side of the veil. Of course despite this attempt at explanation the phenomenon remains largely unexplainable.