HAUNTED: THE STONE ARCH BRIDGE, JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK

No sooner had I written my post on the Stone Arch Bridge  (which took several hours with all the photos), the post disappeared.  Now this is the first time that has ever happened.  Do you think it was the ghost's doing?  Well, I'm going to try again with a humbler post and see how it goes.

Very kich. The Stone Arch Inn, located down the street from the Stone Arch Bridge, uses the image on its place mats.  Should we bother going to the bridge? After all, it's raining out.  Maybe it's enough that we look at the images on the wall of this restaurant (scroll down to see them).  My husband overhears the one line that will get me to risk my camera in the rain for the sake of some photos.  The barmaid says, "But the bridge is haunted."  "Did you hear that?" my husband asked me.  "The bridge is haunted."

Peaceful as it seems, does evil lurk beneath?

The story goes that in 1880, the German Swiss immigrants Henry & Philip Hembt built a road over Callicoon Creek connecting the old Newburg-Cochecton Turnpike and Callicoon Valley, a road that was important for commerce.  Less than two years later, in 1882, a hex murder was committed on that bridge, labeling it forever as haunted.  This is what happened.  Adam Heidt thought himself cursed by George Markert's hex, a hex which was making Heidt's life miserable.  One dark night, Adam & his son, with the hope of ending the hex, attacked Markert, killed him, and threw him over the bridge into the cold waters below.  It is said that on cold dark nights, Markert's ghost can be seen walking over the bridge, a bridge which is now a preserved historical structure.  I wonder if the ghost is included in that historical preservation.

They say that on dark cold nights, the ghost appears.

Is that the ghost reflected in the waters below?

Is that the ghost walking over the bridge? No, it's not dark enough! It's just Marash Boy looking for the ghost!

Below are the images of the three arched stone bridge that line the walls of the Stone Arch Inn; over the years, the bridge has captured the imagination of all who live in and around Jeffersonville, New York.

 

Can you find the ghost in any of the images above?

Emily - The Haunted Bridge: Gold Brook Covered Bridge, Stowe, Vermont

Emily's Covered Bridge -  Gold Brook Bridge in Stowe Hollow, Vermont, better known as the haunted bridge or Emily's Bridge . . . we wouldn't have thought to look for it if it hadn't rained for 5 days and we weren't looking for something--anything-- to take our minds off the rain. Even with a map, we had difficulty finding Emily's covered bridge.  The street signs were missing (the only streets we saw in all of Stowe that were missing signs, or so we thought) and the turn off to the bridge was significantly unmarked.  (Was this Emily at work?)

Gold Brook

The only way we found the bridge was by following Gold Brook up the mountain (granted the brook after all this rain was more like a river rushing down the mountain!)

Emily -- Emily, where are you, I called as I walked through the covered bridge,

snapping photos and bravely holding my camera in front of my face. 

But Emily must have mistaken my camera . . .

She must have mistaken my camera for a cross,

because I never did see or hear any sign of Emily.

Can you see Emily anywhere in these photos?

Let me know if you see her!

Safe at last! Although I did have to go back through the bridge to get to our car, believe me, I kept the camera in front of my face and kept shooting photos; just wanted to be on the safe side, as it were! Let me know if you'd like to check out the set of photos I took on the return through the bridge for a possible sighting of Emily!

As Emily is known to come out at night, I asked my husband if he'd like to return at night,  just to see if we could meet up with her.  "Oh, no!" he answered. "I'd be too scared!"

By the way, bridges were covered in New England in order to keep them free of snow and ice and to keep the horse-drawn carriages from slipping off into the freezing waters below. In Massachusetts, we call these bridges Kissing Bridges, as the bridges would keep sweethearts in Puritan New England hidden just long enough to steal a kiss without being seen!

For more information on Emily's Bridge, go to http://www.coveredbridgesite.com/vt/emilys.html