Читать книгу Cincinnati Haunted Handbook - Jeff Morris - Страница 26

directions

Take I-71 north until you reach OH-126, the Ronald Reagan Highway. Take Ronald Reagan east toward Montgomery. Less than a half mile down the road, take the Montgomery Road exit and turn right onto Montgomery Road. Less than a quarter mile down Montgomery, turn right onto Findley Lane. Then turn left onto Spooky Ridge Lane. About a quarter mile down this road, turn right onto Spooky Hollow Road. Continue straight on this road until it curves up to the left. Continue to go straight onto Blome (pronounced bloom) Road. The bridge is not far. You can’t miss it. It will be one of the creepiest bridges you’ve ever seen.

history

This bridge in the historic village of Indian Hill was built in 1888. Since it is only one lane wide, a series of accidents have occurred on the bridge. One incident involved a car speeding toward the bridge and swerving to avoid an oncoming car. The swerving car dove headlong into the wooded creek area beside the bridge and all inside were killed. A series of other accidents have reputedly occurred on the bridge, but it is difficult to tell if they are true. For that reason, I have included the most famous reputed tragedy of this bridge in the ghost story section of this chapter.

Today the bridge is still only one lane wide, but there is a stop sign on either side of the bridge. The sign makes it safer, but there are still those drivers who disregard the sign.

ghost story

The most popular ghost story that supposedly occurs at this bridge involves a hit-and-run accident. A pregnant woman was walking across the bridge when, from the opposite direction, a car raced toward her, unaware that she was on the bridge. It hit her and knocked her over the side of the bridge to her death. The driver stopped the car, and he stepped out to see if she was okay. She wasn’t. She was dead. In a panic, he rushed back to his car. As he scrambled into his car, a penny somehow rolled out of the car and off the bridge toward the body of the woman. According to legend, if you turn off your car on the bridge, roll down the window, and throw a penny off the bridge, within three minutes the penny will come back and hit your car.

People also claim they hear voices coming from the nearby woods. They attribute the voices to the accident in which the car swerved into the creek. People also have claimed that while driving across the bridge their cars have been hit hard by an unseen object. When the driver checks the car for what had hit it, he or she cannot find anything and can find no damage anywhere.

visiting

Late at night, not many cars go down this remote stretch of road. Further, there are stop signs on both sides of the bridge, and other drivers have a reasonable amount of time to react when they see a car stopped on the bridge. The bridge, however, is not without dangers. Sometimes cars will go across the bridge, especially late at night, without heeding the stop signs. If you choose to stop on the bridge and turn off your car, make sure you keep your headlights on so other drivers can see you. I keep the car running whenever I go to this location so that if I see headlights cresting the hill in front of me or behind me, I can quickly cross the bridge and allow them to pass. This bridge is not difficult to investigate, but be careful.