jetmonkey
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Jack Creek, a stream west of Lufkin, has for years been known as Cry Baby Creek, supposedly because a women and a baby died when their auto veered off a wooden bridge and fell into the steep creek. Annette Sawyer of Lufkin, who directed us to the bridge, said visitors who come to the site at night claim they have heard sounds resembling a baby crying. One visitor supposedly found the imprint of a baby’s hand on her auto window after returning from the bridge.
[/FONT]Cry Baby Bridge
07.22.2005 | 10:11 pm | Alabama, Saraland, United States
Under this bridge, many years ago, a small baby drowned. It is said that the cries of the baby may be heard at times, and if baby powder is sprinkled on the bridge, footprints of a small child may be seen.
"Crybaby Bridge" is by far the most widespread urban legend in Ohio, easily beating out the "Bloody Marys" and "Witches' Graves." Near as we can tell, there are no less than 24crybaby bridges in Ohio. With some variations, most crybaby bridge legends have this in common: Park your car over (or under) the bridge, and you will soon hear the sounds of a person crying.
For the most part, the person crying is a baby. Other times, the sobs are said to come from the baby's mother. For a few bridges, there is more than one baby crying (as in the case of Gore Orphanage). For others, the baby doesn't just cry, but screams. And if you're really lucky, you will leave a bridge with a special souvenir--a child's footprints (Helltown) or handprints on your car. That is assuming that you can even leave, as several crybaby legends hold that once you park your car, you will not be able to restart it.
The Crybaby Bridge Phenomenon As Internet Hoax: One Case In Point In Maryland
A clear case can be made for the existence of at least one Crybaby Bridge story as being due to a selective, and almost overnight “seeding” of the Shadowlands Ghost Website in 1999. As Jesse Glass, author of Ghosts and Legends of Carroll County Maryland (Carroll County Public Library, 1982, 199
1) The almost overnight appearance of “Crybaby Bridges” in Maryland and Ohio, which indicates seeding of selected Internet websites devoted to ghosts and the paranormal. One of the most popular websites in the late 1990’s was the Shadowlands listing of hauntings in each state. Glass recalls noting the sudden appearance of “Crybaby Bridges” on that website and bringing them–particularly the one in Westminster–to the attention of the owner of the site. The story was almost identical in every location, with certain variations indicating a facile knowledge of the history of the area. In the case of Westminster, KKK activity happened in the 1970’s, and received extensive newspaper coverage, so it would not have been difficult for the hoaxer to connect the KKK to the story in Westminster.
2) The lack of any historical documentation of events remotely connected with forced infanticide and deaths of slaves at the bridge. Westminster, Maryland maintained two vital newspapers during the historical period in question,The American Sentinel and The Democratic Advocate. Both papers gave extensive coverage to local events, even the most lurid. This includes hangings, lynchings, and the deaths of African-Americans as well as the activities of the KKK and KKK-like groups during the Reconstruction period. These papers would have reported events like those the Crybaby Bridge story purports to have happened, yet there is not a single mention in any of these papers of those events.
3) The complete lack of any local oral history connected with the bridge in question before 1999. In the 1970’s Glass interviewed elderly residents of Westminster and Carroll County, Maryland to compile the stories in Ghosts and Legends of Carroll County, Maryland, and though he talked to residents who could recall stories of what happened in the area pre-dating the Civil War, not one person mentioned anything remotely connected to the bridge in question. Glass himself spent his formative years in the Westminster area and similarly heard nothing about this story until its abrupt appearance on the Internet.
4) Because of these points Glass, a Maryland folklorist and historian whose work has been recognized by the Maryland Humanities Council and the Library of Congress, concludes that the Westminster Crybaby Bridge story is the result of an Internet hoax, and by extension, suggests that other Crybaby Bridge stories that appeared at the same time as the Westminster story are most probably conscious attempts at creating regional fakelore.
