 | | | | | | | | | | |  |  | | | | Paranormal: Cry Baby Bridge, and other tales of terror in Chester County">2. Paranormal News | | | | | | | 
2. Paranormal News | News submitted by: MIB
What you are about to read is true. Names have been left out to protect the not-so-innocent and/or criminally insane. The events described below happened very close by — maybe down the street from you, maybe in your own backyard. Terror waits around every shadowed corner, ready to leap out and drag you headlong into this horrifying journey into the dark side of Chester County.
Cry Baby Bridge
• Where: Union and Chester counties
• Frightful Facts: There seems to be a Cry Baby Bridge in almost every county in the state, including one off of 72 North near Fishing Creek Church in Chester. As the story goes, a woman threw her baby off the bridge to spite her cheating husband, and now the baby’s cries float eternally on the night air.
The Cry Baby Bridge in Union, however, boasts a more detailed legend and numerous reports of supernatural activity. It can be arrived at by getting off on 176 toward Union then turning left onto Old Buncombe Road. A right turn onto Sardis Road will lead to a stop sign, where another right turn is necessary. Drive over the first bridge and soon it will come into view, a massive old bridge with a spooky aura and an even spookier legend.
As with most haunted places, more than one legend surrounds Cry Baby Bridge. One says a woman threw her baby off into the river to spite her husband and now spends eternity searching for it, much like the legend surrounding the Chester bridge. Another and perhaps more morbid story states that a group of people were hiding under the bridge from Yankee soldiers during the Civil War. One woman was holding a crying baby and was forced to hold it tight to keep it quiet, so as not to give away their location. When the soldiers had passed, the woman let the baby go and discovered she had suffocated it. The people, as the legend goes, buried the baby and went on their way, the mother in tow. The mother eventually went back to the bridge to be with her baby, however, and died there.
Anyone who wants to come in contact with this disembodied spirit should, according to local stories, park on the bridge, turn the headlights and the vehicle off, take the keys out and get out of the vehicle. The keys should be placed on the roof of the vehicle and the words “I have your baby!” should be screamed out into the night. As for what happens next, well, that’s a topic of debate. Some say the woman will appear and come very close. Others say she will chase and try to kill. There’s only one way to find out for sure...
The little girl in the old house
• Where: The Historic District
• Frightful Facts: It was requested that the owner’s name and the exact location of this haunted dwelling be left out, but for the sake of the story, it is a 100-plus-year-old house in Chester’s Historic District.
The huge and ancient residence was occupied by a lady who only used the back part of the house. The front part was left empty and uninhabited, but still she would find lights on and doors open there. Strange noises and footsteps also echoed from the empty halls and rooms, and the lady’s dog wouldn’t even enter this portion of the home, choosing instead to stand nearby and bark into the emptiness.
The lady warmed her home with gas space heaters, and one night she was awakened by a strange sound. The pilot light had gone out in her bedroom heater and the room was steadily filling with deadly gas. Panicking at first, she soon gratefully realized her bedroom window was open, letting the gas escape. Her life was saved, but there was only one minor detail — she hadn’t opened the window.
After that the lady decided to do some research into the house’s history to find out who may be haunting her. She discovered that many years ago, a little girl had died in the house from pneumonia. She had been an only child and the grief was tremendous.
Intrigued, the lady of the house went in search of the little girl’s grave, only to find her tombstone knocked over. Out of respect she righted it, and from that day on she never again experienced the haunting ways of the little girl.
The Red Room
• Where: Great Falls
• Frightful Facts: The Red Room is located in the upstairs portion of the Great Falls War Memorial Building, and has a truly chilling legend behind it.
Years and years ago, the War Memorial Building was used as a house when the mills dominated Great Falls. As the story goes, the man of the house came home only to find his wife with another man. Angered beyond belief, the man took an ax to his wife’s lover and chopped him up right there in the room. The amount of blood spilled on the floor and walls was so great that, to this very day, it can’t completely be painted over. It still clings to the room, as most likely does the spirit of the murdered man.
The Ridgeview Lights
• Where: Ridgeview Road in Chester
• Frightful Facts: Ridgeview Road, located off of Highway 9, is a seemingly normal road with no obvious peculiarities — by day, anyway. At night it’s a whole different story.
As legend has it, there’s a long dirt driveway off of Ridgeview Road that leads to an old house. Unfortunately, decades ago, a child died at that house. Some say the child died in its crib and others insist it died in a hay-baling accident, but either way this child lingers on and has made itself seen several times.
To summon the poor spirit, one has only to drive down the driveway at night and blow the horn. A shining ball of light will appear and dance and bounce against the night sky, a truly eerie and spine-tingling sight.
Eyeball Bridge
• Where: Ashford Ferry Road in Chester
• Frightful Facts: This rickety old bridge is located down a dirt road off of Ashford Ferry Road. Local lore insists that back in the 1950s, a man wrecked his car when trying to take the sharp turn at the bridge. He laid there all night in his mangled vehicle before he was found the next morning, and as the legend goes, with his eyeballs missing.
The eyes were never found, but it has been said the man’s eyes can be seen floating over the bridge at night. Anyone driving across this dark and spooky bridge shouldn’t be surprised if they feel as though they are being watched.
The Disappearing Lake
• Where: Hawthorne Road
• Frightful Facts: This legend can be explained as an optical illusion, but it is still fascinating and undoubtedly eerie to behold.
On nights when the moon is full, a lake will materialize in an open field and shimmer and wave in the moonlight. According to lore, it appears to take up the entire field and is even accompanied by the sound of moving water. They say the magical lake can be attributed to the moonlight reflecting off the dew in the field and the sound of water comes from a nearby creek, but who really knows for sure? There are indeed some things that defy scientific explanation.
The Chester Little Theatre
• Where: 107 Wylie St., Chester
• Frightful Facts: Although it’s not officially recorded in the history of Chester County, it is widely believed that the area around the Chester Little Theatre was used as the gallows, or public hanging grounds, back in the late 1780s. Does the area still bear the souls of the executed? Some who have worked in the theatre say something is definitely “hanging” around.
Unexplained sounds, such as voices, footsteps and creaks, have been heard in the theatre by people who are supposedly there alone. One theatre veteran spoke of seeing two cylinders of light appear on the stage, and watched as they moved back and forth. Were these lights two spirits acting on the stage? There was no light source in the theatre to account for these anomalies.
Stranger still is the disturbing story of otherworldly sounds picked up on the headsets used by the stage managers and other theatre workers. According to one actor, one day during rehearsals for a play the stage manager stepped out from behind the curtain and was white as a ghost. The manager had the crew come and listen to the headset she was wearing, and they all heard the unmistakeable sounds of a baby crying. The cries were coming in loud and clear through the headset, but of course there was no baby in the theatre.
Perhaps the most terrifying tale to come out of the Chester Little Theatre involves an ordinary cassette tape. The cast was presenting “Man of LaMancha” and was using a tape of the play’s songs during rehearsals. One of the songs in the play, which was sung by the priest, was in Latin and was the “death song,” according to one actor. As if singing a Latin death song wasn’t unsettling enough already, the situation was made even worse when the crew returned after leaving the tape on the stage overnight and played it.
What they heard was truly startling. According to two actors who were there, the Latin death song on the tape was backward. The rest of the tape was absolutely normal.
Special thanks go out to Glinda Coleman and John Roddey. Information on Crybaby Bridge in Union was obtained from www. gravenight.net.
http://www.onlinechester.com/ONLINECHESTER/sites/ONLINECHESTER/0279edition/myarticles566774.asp?P=566774&S=485&PubID=11209
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