Road and Spooky Hollow Road, Indian Hill, OH 45243
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.
MIAMITOWN BRIDGE
Harrison Avenue and State Route 128, Miamitown, OH 45041
directions
Take I-74 west to exit 7 (Hamilton/Cleves/128). Turn right onto 128, toward the gas stations and Wendy’s. You will go through Miamitown and will get to a traffic light at Harrison Avenue. Turn right on Harrison to cross the haunted bridge.
history
This is the fourth bridge to span this part of the Great Miami River. The first one was a covered bridge that was torn down in 1863 to prevent the Confederate cavalry led by John Hunt Morgan from crossing it. The second one was built in 1894 and was a big steel bridge where at least a couple of fatalities occurred. The first fatality occurred when a hay wagon was going over the bridge in the 1930s and a man on the back of the wagon was taken by surprise by a sudden swerve, falling into the river and drowning. The second fatality occurred as construction work was being done on the bridge in the 1950s. The decking of the bridge had been torn up and the bridge was closed. A man got drunk at the Flicker Inn on Harrison Avenue and tried to drive home. He didn’t realize that the bridge was out, so he started to drive across it, his tires remarkably able to stay on the two steel beams which still crossed the river. About halfway across the bridge, a tire slipped off the beam and his car became stuck. He stepped out of his car to see what had happened, but, because of the lack of decking, he fell into the river below and drowned.
In 1989, plans were made to construct a new bridge, one that would be more like an overpass, an extension of the road itself. In order to build this structure, however, they had to build a temporary bridge to carry traffic while the old bridge was torn down and the new one was built. In May 1989, there had been many storms, and the river level had risen significantly. Debris in the river hit the wooden pylons that supported the bridge. At 5:26 p.m. on May 26, 1989, the temporary span of the Miamitown Bridge collapsed. Officially, one car went down with the bridge, and two people died in the collapse. Witnesses claim that a red truck also went down with the bridge but the red truck was never found, and no one ever reported a red truck missing.
ghost story
With such a long history of tragedy, it’s no wonder that several ghosts have taken up residence on this span of steel and asphalt over the Great Miami River. The most famous and widely reported ghost here is supposedly the driver of the red truck, who everyone saw go down with the bridge but whose vehicle and body were never found. The ghost appears in the form of a glowing white apparition that begins crossing the bridge from the east toward Miamitown. As the ghost crosses the bridge, it slowly starts to dissipate. It never makes it all the way across the bridge without disappearing.
While this glowing white apparition is the most famous ghost, other strange things are reported. People standing on the bridge will often see shadowy figures start to walk across. Almost as quickly as they appear, these figures will vanish as if they were never there and were nothing more than a trick of the eyes.
visiting
This bridge can be visited at any time of the day or night. You can either drive across, or you can park in Miamitown and walk out onto a sidewalk on the south side of the bridge. This sidewalk is always open and is completely safe at all hours since there is a concrete barricade between this sidewalk and the roadway and a large fence between the sidewalk and the river below.
PEACEFUL VALLEY
Near the intersection of Stonelick-Williams Corner Road and Baizhiser Lane, Goshen, OH 45122
directions
The area known as Peaceful Valley includes land along SR-28 and the area just south of it along the Stonelick Creek. To get to SR-28, take I-71 north to I-275 east to exit 57. Head east along SR-28. When you get to SR-132 in the city of Goshen, turn right. Follow this road (it becomes Williams Corner Road) until you get to a road called Stonelick Williams Corner Road. Turn right; the haunted bridge will be down the road a little ways.
You can also take the US-50 Milford exit off I-275. Take 50 to
