United States (c.1800's)
United States (c.1800's)
All across the United States, there are a series of landmarks called crybaby bridges. These bridges are typically located in the more rural parts of the US. Those who have been around these bridges, especially at night, note that faint childrens’ crying can be heard. The bridges can be found all across the US, but they all share one thing in common, tragedy.
As you’ve probably guessed, all of these bridges are the sites of infant or child death, for one reason or another. Each bridge is accompanied by a tale of loss.
Crybaby Bridge on Sleepy Hollow Road, Ky
On the bridge in Kentucky, it was reportedly a site where mothers would throw their unwanted, sick, or deformed babies into the water to get rid of them. It can be found on Sleepy Hollow road of all place. The original bridge, which went over Hite creek, has been torn down and replaced by a concrete and steel bridge just a little north. It's been said that if you stand on the bridge at night, you can hear loud crying and shrieking of dead infants that seem to emanate from the bridge. There are also rumors that if you drive over the bridge with your windows down at night, you can hear the mournful wails of the mothers who threw their babies over.
The road to the bridge in Ohio
Another one lies in Ohio, on Egypt Road near Salem (I’m noticing a pattern on location names) in Perry Township. On this one, an infant reportedly fell off the bridge and drowned. Unfortunately, tragedy struck again in 2010 at the same bridge. Ruth Bauman, a 60 year old woman was found strangled to death and burned at the bridge on October 24, 2010. The death was ruled as a homicide, and was the first homicide that Perry had seen in over 20 years. Out of respect for the very real victim, and her family, I ask that you don’t go visiting this place looking for clues or trying to communicate with the deceased. Though it was 14 years ago (at the time of writing this), and I don’t think anyone’s really going to read this, families in this small town don’t want to be inundated with nosy tourists asking around about town tragedies. Besides, the road is covered off, and has been for decades, even before the murder. Clearly the town is raw about this bridge, so it's best to exercise caution about this bridge, and probably avoid it altogether.
The Crybaby Bridge on Lottsford Vista road
The last bridge I have documented is one in Maryland, off Lottsford Vista road. This one doesn’t have a big tragic backstory like the others, but this one is reportedly a goatman bridge as well! I think it’s important to note that with Maryland, there are way more bridges, but each one has a muddy history that really stifles the legitimacy of each bridge. As noted by Jesse Glass, an author, folklorist, and poet from Maryland, a lot of the bridges share identical backstories to ones found in other parts of the US. He noticed that around 1999, more stories of these bridges began to pop up out of nowhere with striking resemblance to Ohio and Kentucky. For instance, there’s a bridge on Walnut Tree road, that is said to be the spot where a teenage mother threw off her baby because it was deformed (cough cough, Kentucky, cough cough). Furthermore, he found that some stories of these bridges were founded in completely unsubstantiated stories about African Americans. He notes that the bridge in Westminster, Maryland, which was said to be the spot in the 1800’s where unwanted black babies specifically were thrown. But upon looking into newspapers at the time (The American Sentinel, and the Democratic Advocate), which covered racially motivated killings, no reports were seen.
So, if you are in the Maryland area, and you want to visit a genuine crybaby bridge, be careful, because there’s a lot of fakelore out there. I know there’s an argument to be made about all folklore being fiction, but I believe there’s a clear difference here. Folklore is derived from real experiences, events, or people, which have been grown into local legends. Fakelore is a bunch of fake stories made up by people who want either attention or money. The more we propagate the stories of fakelore, the more we disregard the real, rich history of an area.
There’s a number of other bridges across the US, notably in Texas. But, I wanted to document the ones closer to my area. I may come back later and revise this page with more information on the ones in other parts of the US, but for now, these are the most notable ones I’ve found.