Legend-Tripping at the Old Richardsville Road Bridge

Abby Zibart

FLK 276

Dr. Ann Ferrell

November 28, 2013

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Bill Ellis is one of the most prominent folklorists who have published work on - trips. Most people are probably familiar with legend-tripping even though they may not realize it.

Just about every community around the country has a legend-trip. Teenagers spread amongst their peers concerning a particular local site that is usually considered off-limits by adults, and go out to the site to test these legends (Sims et al. 2011). However, there exist as many variations of the legend as people circulating them; thus, making it . There are three general narrative categories of these legends: people dying in violent situations or accidents, haunted gravesites, and those that feature uncanny persons or creatures that are often . The most basic aspect is that there must be a legend in order for a legend-trip to exist. The average age of legend-trip participants is sixteen to eighteen years of age, or “cruising age.” With this age range in mind, the connections to coming of age or rites of passage are easy to see. Ages sixteen to eighteen is when many teenagers get their driver’s license and first cars.

With this, comes a great deal of freedom and mobility. A central aspect to legend-trips is automobiles. The car may provide protection from the paranormal; a mode of escape or refuge during a legend-trip that becomes all too real. There is also some anxiety about the safety of the car. The supernatural may be able to interact physically with the car, which threatens the safety of the participants (Ellis 1983). “Legend-trip in general is a way of playing chicken with adolescent anxieties” (Ellis 1983). The element of risk and fear add to the excitement and enjoyment of the legend-trip, as well as the achieved status of being a survivor of the trip (Sims et al. 2011). Legend-trips “allow adolescents to experience the emotions of being in death’s presence and the exhilaration of having conquered their fears without adult assistance” (Ellis

1983).

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Elizabeth Bird is another name that is mentioned in discussions of legend-tripping. She published a study concerning the Black Angel in Iowa City, but in that publication she made several strong points about legend-tripping in general. While there are many different versions of local legends, or oikotypes, they are usually always variations of widespread generic legend types. Legends often spawn from specific locations, for example, a bridge. Edmund Leach was quoted by Bird stating that “if a story becomes ‘embedded’ in features of the landscape, story and place are mutually supportive” (Bird 1994). A central aspect to legends in general is the questioning of truth. With these legend-trips, there is often ambiguity regarding questions that have no apparent answer. This ambiguity keeps the legend alive with excitement and thrill (Bird

1994). Gary Hall stated that legend-trip participants will “willingly suspend disbelief in super- natural haunts and other horrors” to make the event more exciting (Ellis 1981). She adds that it is often not until arrival at the site of the legend that the stories are told, which usually builds fear in the participants right before they go through with the performance of the legend-trip. Bird states that “the emotional power of the experience derives from a combination of setting, narratives, and actions, all of which are interdependent” (Bird 1994).

A popular legend-trip in the Bowling Green, Kentucky area is that of the Old

Richardsville Road Bridge. Just outside Bowling Green, down Old Richardsville Road, you will find a very old, very isolated bridge. Old Richardsville Road is a narrow road covered by overhanging trees. Built in 1889, it is a three span bowstring through truss design over the Barren

River. It has metal trusses and a wooden deck. It is still open to traffic, but only services an estimated 165 people per day, as of 2006. When a car is driven across the bridge, a squealing or moaning of the bridge occurs as a result of the metal and wooden structure. The narrow road with overhanging trees in a rural area and the moaning and creaking of the bridge combine to

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3 create a very creepy area. Perhaps this is one reason it has been an element of many local legends

("Old Richardsville Road Bridge" 18 05, 2013).

There are many legends offered as explanations of why the Old Richardsville Road

Bridge is haunted, what process is supposed to be enacted when participants go there, and what is supposed to happen to the participant. These versions, sadly, are usually not documented or archived but rather spread verbally through peer communities of adolescents. I have personally heard a few different versions, and one person I interviewed for this project has informed me of another version I have never heard. This legend-trip has even been conducted by the local news station, WBKO, and aired on local television. One legend I have heard is that a young woman found out that she was pregnant. The thought of pregnancy was too much for her to handle, and she committed suicide on the bridge by driving off of it. For some reason, this spirit now wants to save others from dying on the bridge. She pushes the car to the other side of the bridge.

Another version I have heard is that there was once a terrible wreck on the bridge that resulted in a fatality. The person who died on this bridge wants to save others from the same fate, so they safely push the car to the other side of the bridge. The final version that I have personally heard did not involve a car at all. A woman committed suicide from jumping off of the bridge. Within this same version, there are different reasons as to why she committed suicide. I have heard that she jumped because she found out she was pregnant, or because she was depressed for unknown reasons. She is also believed to push vehicles across the bridge to the other side. There are some who say that the windows of the car should be rolled down or else the spirit will push you off the bridge into the water, while some say precisely the opposite. Some include putting baby powder or flour on the bumper of the car in order to see the spirit’s handprints from pushing the car.

Windows up or down, baby powder or not, the main process is getting on the bridge and shifting

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the car into neutral. The spirit, for whatever reason, is supposed to push the car. It may be only a short distance, or it could be the entire 422.8 feet of the bridge ("Old Richardsville Road Bridge"

18 05, 2013). From the versions I have heard alone, it is easy to identify the questionable truth factor that is essential to legends.

I interviewed a Western Kentucky University student, Ellyn, as well as an employee at

WKU library, Jack. Jack is originally from South Carolina. I was fortunate in my background research to have found a newspaper article written and published by Jack about his experience at the bridge. He states in his article “According to an unsubstantiated legend, a ghost phenomenon stems from an alleged suicide by a young woman who found herself pregnant and unmarried.

Her ghost is said to haunt the bridge and will push cars left in neutral across the bridge”

(Montgomery 2011). I have known Ellyn since elementary school. She told a version of the legend in her interview that I have never heard. She said that “the legend started that a small child was playing on the bridge and a large vehicle, maybe a truck or tractor, came through the bridge, did not see her and ran her over, basically, and she fell off the bridge and into the river below. If you go there at night and you park your car in the middle of the bridge and put your car in neutral that she will push your car off the bridge, not off into the river, but back onto steady ground.” Jack did not name where he heard this version, but Ellyn said that she heard this version from the friends she went with, who she met in college. Ellyn also reported in her interview that she was not really told a legend until they got on-site at the bridge. This supports

Bird’s aforementioned claim.

Ellyn recounted in the interview that she went “because we were just bored, and this was… a stop on a ‘let’s go visit creepy places in Bowling Green’ night.” Jack stated that his

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5 reason for going on the legend-trip was because they were “asked on several occasions to write an article for Halloween…about a local haunted spot.”

Quite naturally, after hearing the stories and conducting these interviews, I wanted to try this legend-trip for myself. I had heard stories about this bridge throughout high school, and I finally had this project as motivation to go. On the night of November 23, 2013, I went to the bridge with a close friend around 8 or 9 o’clock. We turned off the main highway and onto Old

Richardsville Road. It was an exceptionally dark night, and my friend’s vehicle did not have very powerful headlights. We traveled down the road going very slowly because we were already fairly scared and did not know the road well. We had been exchanging stories about the bridge and other supernatural phenomena on the way to the bridge. The pitch black darkness, dim lights, and creepy setting did not comfort us. I refer back to Bird’s statement: “the emotional power of the experience derives from a combination of setting, narratives, and actions, all of which are interdependent” (Bird 1994). We finally approached the bridge from the Bowling Green side.

Our hearts were racing. My friend, who was driving, stopped just before entering the bridge. She was frozen in fear. She kept that she could not go on. I was going to have to do this alone.

I tried to calm her down, and eventually we crept onto the bridge, put the car in neutral, and waited. The waiting was the worst part because it was so completely dark and we were isolated in an unfamiliar territory. We did not start moving, so we went to another point on the bridge, put the car in neutral, and waited; still nothing. We tried one more spot on the bridge with the same results. We exited the bridge, turned around, and went back across the bridge the opposite direction repeating the same steps. Still, we did not move. I tried speaking with the alleged spirit to try and ask her if she could please push us across the bridge. We exited the bridge, got back on the main road, and I told my friend I would drive. So, I got behind the wheel and turned back to

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try it again. We repeated the same steps with the same results. During the third trial, though, we were far less frightened. We left the site for good, and reflected on the legend-trip during the ride back home.

The role of folklorists is not to prove whether or not a legend is true, but rather to collect folklore. My experience with the legend-trip was very similar to Jack’s, as his vehicle did not move either. These experiences are much different than Ellyn’s and even WBKO’s. Ellyn’s vehicle began moving, and they sped off in fear. WBKO aired a video of their experience, in which the vehicle moved. Although the results of the legend-trip differ by account, the possibility that a car can move across the bridge adds excitement and keeps the legend alive. A comment I find relevant to folklore is from the closing remarks of Jack’s interview. He said that

“the interesting thing about the Richardsville bridge was the reaction of people that the article caused was that people didn’t want to have to think or didn’t want to have to face the fact that [it might be] external factors that was affecting the perception of the bridge.” Legends often bring a community together with a shared sense of identity, as much of folklore does. Discounting or debunking a community’s legend is like taking away a piece of who they are, so it makes sense that some people may have gotten upset after reading Jack’s article.

Something that is noteworthy in studying anything that people do is how they value and interpret their experience. Ellyn said in the interview “I thought it was very real… I don’t think we were hyped up on adrenaline…expecting this ghost girl to move our car. I feel as though it was a very genuine experience, and that we weren’t just making it up. And, to this day, I know I did not make it up in my head because it that was a very odd thing.” When Jack reflected on his experience, he said he enjoyed it and said “I think it’s a phenomenon that we do not yet understand.” He kept an open mind and tried to see the situation from every angle. He was

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7 adamant in both his interview and his newspaper article that he isn’t trying to say that it is or is not haunted, rather there are other factors affecting the experience at the bridge.

I was lucky that I had close contacts to interview about their experiences at the Old

Richardsville Road Bridge. As I have stated above, I have known Ellyn since elementary school.

We have been in band together since middle school on into the present semester in college. This created a very comfortable and casual interview. There was more of a conversational tone in our interview because of our relationship. I also know two of the three people with whom she went to the bridge, so more personal comments and emotions came through the interview. I enjoyed speaking with her and learning a new version of the legend. I have never personally spoken with

Jack, but I have seen him around the library, as I am a student worker there. I told him that I am an /folk studies student, which gave us common ground. I think the dynamic of my interview with Jack was very academic, yet comfortable. I gained much interest in his conversation when he mentioned that he and his wife are folklorists by hobby. I learned much from these interviews, and I have enjoyed the time spent on this project.

An interesting topic relating to legend-tripping, supernatural folklore, and bridges concerns the questions “Why a bridge? Why that particular bridge?” Jack states in his article

“there are at least forty similar stories associated with bridges throughout the American landscape. Bridges, by being structurally between worlds, so to speak, are natural places for paranormal phenomena to manifest in our collective consciousness” (Montgomery 2011).

Bridges are often seen as being symbolic. A bridge allows safe passage over a potentially dangerous natural feature, such as a river. Rivers have historically been seen as sacred forces, so the bridge becomes sacred, too, because it crosses it. Thus, it gives humans an opportunity to overcome danger. Participants in the Old Richardsville Road Bridge legend-trip overcome

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potential danger by surviving the trip. A bridge links two divided spaces, and the middle of the bridge is the most intense point of separation. Calabrese paraphrases Martin Heidegger who spoke about bridges being a “cross between human and divine, earth and sky” (Calabrese 2011).

To apply the same concept to the supernatural is not a big stretch. A bridge could be between the living and the dead. Bridges are often elements in supernatural legends in communities across the country. This could be a result of the symbolic representation of being between two places, or being liminal. The alleged happenings of the legends of bridges are not always factual. Bridges are between two worlds, as legends are between truth and fiction. As mentioned in the introduction, legend-trips are associated with rites of passage. Arnold van Gennep defined rites of passage as “rites which accompany every change of place, state, social position and age”

(Turner 1969). Van Gennep says that all rites of passage include three stages: separation, margin

(or limen), and aggregation. One is separated from his current place, state, or social position and age; then, one is in the liminal (betwixt and between) stage between statuses; lastly, one is a new product of a new place, state, or social position or age (Turner 1969). The connection between bridges being a liminal space and legend-tripping is uncanny. Legend-tripping occurs during adolescence, which is a time when an individual is neither a child nor an adult. An adolescent may participate in the legend-trip to gain a higher social status. On the basic level, those who have survived a legend-trip are now products of a new social status: survivor. What better place for a status transition than in a liminal space, such as a bridge?

Once legend-tripping is defined, it is easy to come up with examples from one’s hometown. They exist in many different forms, but serve a basic common purpose: rebellion and rite of passage for adolescents. Local legends also form a sense of group identity for the community in which they exist and the individuals who pass on the stories. To quote

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Edmund Leach in Bird’s article once more, “if a story becomes ‘embedded’ in features of the landscape, story and place are mutually supportive” (Bird 1994). This is very much the case for the Old Richardsville Road Bridge, where the truth will always be questioned.

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Bibliography

Bird, S. Elizabeth. "Playing with Fear: Interpreting the Adolescent Legend Trip." Western

Folklore. no. 3 (1994): 191-209.

Bridgehunter, "Old Richardsville Road Bridge." Last modified 18 05, 2013. Accessed November

28, 2013. http://bridgehunter.com/ky/warren/114C00011N/.

Calabrese, Omar. "The bridge: suggestions about the meaning of a pictorial motif." Journal of

Art Historiography Number (2011).

Ellis, Bill. Papers in Comparative Studies. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University, 1983.

Ellis, Bill. "The Camp Mock-Ordeal Theater as Life." The Journal of American Folklore. no.

374 (1981): 486-505.

Montgomery, Jack. "The Old Richardsville Road Bridge: Investigating a Ghostly Legend." Park

City Daily News, October 10, 2011.

Sims, Martha C., and Martine Stephens. Living Folklore Second Edition: An Introduction to the

Study of People and Their . Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2011.

Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. : Aldine Publishing,

1969.

FA 780 Manuscripts & Folklife Archives – Library Special Collections – Western Kentucky University