Southern Indiana Ghosts-Danville Indiana Haunted Bridge

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Danville Bridge- Danville Indiana

Please note:The haunted Danville Bridge has been documented for years, diffrent sources relating several diffrent stories. This section is devoted to several investigations. As with all folklore the stories, people involved and even the exact location has changed through generations. I will try to present all versions and locations here.

Investigation #1 will be the first location we visited, #2 the second. As popular as this story is I am sure there are more versions. If you have anything to add then please email me with the details.

Reported Haunting/Legend:

There are several stories that come from the haunted bridge. The first story says that an Irishmen (or some other immigrant) by the name of "Dad Jones" was helping construct the bridge, he fell into the wet cement to his death when pouring concrete into the wood forms. His body was never recovered, due to many diffrent reported reasons. The most common being that the railroad company refused to pay for the removal. Leaving him forever entombed into the bridge. At night you can hear his screams or his hammer banging on the bridge for you to let him out. A second story says that a woman jumped to her death when an approaching train scared her. One version reports she was carrying her infant and etheir dropped or threw the infant into White Lick Creek below. Many people have reported hearing cries and moans, especially upon the approaching of a train. Or a ghostly woman in white searching the creek below and across the top of the bridge. Visual white globes around the bridge. A family traveling on Halloween got into an accident at the bridge site, and now with a visit on Halloween night you can her the mother screaming and a baby crying. Sometimes at night a muddy creature will dart from the creek and run across the path of your car.

Investigation #1

Directions:

East Twin Bridges Road, Danville Indiana. Road is across from a Kroger.

Investigation:

First investigation done 3/12/2005 approx. 11 p.m. The temperture was around 35. It was partly cloudy. I was quite suprised to find that the road that ran under the bridge next to the creek was heavily traveled even at 11p.m. It is a county road but busy. We spent about 10 minutes parked at the bridge and took some photos. We never heard any screams or moans, only the water in the creek and the traffick on the highway about 1/2 mile up the road and the the traffick on the county road. The bridge was interesting because of the enormousity of it and that it is still used. There was a train parked along the top of it the night we visited. The bridge is so big you could hardly see the train peeking over the top. Our photos showed a few orbs but nothing extremly spooky.

Taken of the bridge area over the creek.

This small bridge runs over the creek, it is directly below the section in the above picture.

Second investigation of same bridge done on 4-27-05. This visit was done during the day to mainly get some better photos of the bridge. It was about 2:30 pm and cloudy. The daytime pictures are of course better. Nothing unsual occured during our visit.

Investigation #2:

This investigation came from a visitors statement that we visited the wrong bridge in Danville, with correct directions to the bridge (behind the playground of Ellis Park in Danville) we sat out for a second investigation. Based on the fact of the visitors statement and a statement made in the book "Haunted Heartland" by Beth Scott & Michael Norman. Their book states "Now the railroad bridge is gone, but the legend, and the Irishman, still remain along White Lick Creek." Also states "The railroad Bridge over White Lick Creek near Danville,...is today only a memory." With this information it became important to invesigate this particualr bridge, or remains of.

Investigation:

We visited the remains of the bridge on 4-26-04 about 10:30 pm. The park area behind the Playscape playground, where the remains are was very dark. The remains were a little hard to find in the dark but walking along the paved path was easy even in the dark. The moon was full and did light up the park in some places. The area was very spooky, but we heard or seen nothing unusual. We did hear some voices, however we feel that these were people above us on the hill where there is a subdivision. We spent about 30-40 minutes in the area of the bridge. We then revisited the bridge remains during the day to get a better veiw of the area. We spent about an hour to and hour and a half walking along the trail that leads to the bridge, and climbing to the top of the bridge. The raised area of where the tracks ran is eroded and I do not recomend trying to do this in the dark, even during the day. As you can see by the photos the area is considered dangerous.

The veiw of the bridge in the dark.
The triangle is the flash reflection from a
warning sign posted on the abutment. The white orbs is most likely moisture
since it had been raining off and on through the evening.

The same veiw as above during the day.

Closeup of the boulders leftover from the destruction
of the bridge. Notice the steel cables.

Veiw of Ellis Park Playscape playground from the top
of the abutment. The orginal bridge spanned across the creek below.
The area for the playground was leveled sometime
between 1946 and 1958 with the playground completed in 1998.
(Information from Indiana Railroads)

The "trail" or leftover area where the tracks ran leading
to the top of the abutment.
The bridge once carried electric interurban trains from
Indianapolis to Danville on the Terre Haute,
Indianapolis and Eastern Traction Co. line.
The structure was opened in 1906
and abandoned in 1930.Information from Indy Star.

The future of the abutment is unknown. As of 5/20/2004 members of the Danville Town Council submitted a proposal to Indiana Dept. of Natural Resources to demolish the abutment. Nevin Rudie, the father of Laura Rudie age 14 who died falling from the abutment March 28, collected 900 signatures to tear down the trestle and presented this to the council. (from the The Hendricks County Flyer) The death of this girl is also the reason for the fence, and warning signs.

The following information from Indy Star.
March 29, 2004 DANVILLE, Ind. -- A beautiful, summerlike afternoon turned tragic Sunday when a 14-year-old girl fell about 30 feet to her death, the latest victim at a site that has proved dangerous before. Laura Elizabeth Rudie, of Danville, died of massive head and neck injuries after she fell from the concrete skeleton of an old interurban bridge just east of the Ellis Park playground beside White Lick Creek. But she was not the first to fall from the towering concrete abutment, and at least one previous victim said her efforts to have safeguards put up at the scene went unheeded. In July 1997, Aja Rossman fell from the same spot. Then 18, she broke her pelvis, femur and ankle. She suffered severe facial fractures, compound breaks that left her with chronic bone infections, probably from the water that got into the open fractures. "It's not safe," Rossman, now 25, said when she learned of Laura's fatal fall. "We tried to get them to close it or put up a sign, but that never happened. It's a shame that they haven't taken any initiative to keep kids from there. It's a public park, and there are trails leading up there." At about 3 p.m., Laura was hiking with two boys on those trails in the park when the three climbed up on the old bridge -- a common hangout for young teens. Danville Police Detective Bill Wright said Laura was lowering herself down to a ledge on the concrete structure when she slipped and fell head first onto the large boulders below. Wright said a boy fell from that same location two years ago and broke his arm.

Investigations Conclusion:
After some research, we feel that the bridge located at East Twin Bridges Road in Danville is the bridge of reported hauntings. The statement made in the book "Haunted Heartland" refers to the remains of the bridge, however two other Indiana haunting books refers to the bridge as still standing. In a report with the Danville Public Library, compiled by Karin Johansson in consultation with Becky Gramling, it is stated "Danville boasts a haunted bridge. It's the arched, concrete one of the twin bridges over Shady Lane leading to the landfill." The same bridge is also referenced by Ronald Baker in his book, Hoosier Folktales, Published by Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Ind. as the haunted bridge. Interveiws with long time residents of the area have always heard that the bridge located at East Twin Bridges Road is haunted. When asked about the bridge at Ellis Park, none could recall ever hearing that it is haunted. Locals have also heard the bridge referred to as "The twin haunted bridges" meaning the bridge in Danville which is a twin of the Avon Haunted Bridge in Avon.

Vote and let us know which bridge is haunted, and if you have your own true story about this bridge send it in!

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